Mr. Mohammedmian Soomro, Chairman Senate of Pakistan, meeting the terms of the Constitution, has taken over as Acting President of Pakistan, after the office of President fell vacant on the resignation of General Pervez Musharraf on August 18, 2008. Mr. Soomro comes from a renowned political family of Sindh, which has been active in public life since 1920s. His father, late Ahmed Mian Soomro, was a seasoned parliamentarian, who became Deputy Speaker of the West Pakistan Assembly and a member of the Senate of Pakistan, and helped establish the Senate Committees systems there.
Born on August19, 1950, Mr. Mohammedmian Soomro earned a B.Sc. degree with distinction from the Forman Christian College, Lahore. He obtained Master’s in Physics from the Punjab University, Lahore, followed by another Master’s in Operations Management from the Northrop University, USA.
Starting his career as banker, Mr. Mohammedmian Soomro held various important positions both at home and abroad in national and international organizations such as Bank of America. He has also been General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of International Bank of Yemen, and Faysal Islamic Bank of Bahrain, and of Muslim Commercial Bank, Agriculture Development Bank, Federal Bank of Cooperatives and National Bank of Pakistan. He won wide recognition for his achievements during his stint with these organizations. He was instrumental in the establishment of microcredit banking in Pakistan.
Being the head of the large Soomro tribe, he is known for his strong interpersonal and leadership skills. He has been abreast with national and socio-political issues and has had a vast exposure of political life since his college days.
Mr. Soomro's public service role started with his appointment as Governor of Sindh province on May 25, 2000. During the tenure, he took a number of steps to bring about financial and administrative discipline, as well as to accelerate the pace of economic development in the province and produce a meaningful improvement in the life of the general populace. During his governorship the province witnessed stability and ethnic harmony. Merit, transparency and good governance were the hallmarks of his administration. This was acknowledged by the international donors when under his leadership Sindh became the first province in South Asia to be funded directly by the World Bank for restructuring programme.
Mr. Soomro resigned from the office of Sindh Governor on December 26, 2002 to contest the Senate elections. He was elected as a Senator on February 24, 2003 and was subsequently elected as Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan on March 12, 2003 for a three years term. He was re-elected Chairman Senate on March 12, 2006 for the second consecutive term.
Lately, Mr. Soomro was the Acting Prime Minister of Pakistan from November 15, 2007 to March 25, 2008 when he headed the interim government that successfully conducted the general election in the country on February18, 2008.