Profile:

Awais Manzur Sumra is serving as the Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, where he leads Pakistan’s central development planning apparatus and oversees national policy formulation, project evaluation, and strategic coordination with federal ministries, provincial governments, and international partners.

A career civil servant with nearly three decades of diverse experience, he joined the Pakistan Administrative Service in 1995 and has since held key leadership assignments including Special Secretary and Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Additional Secretary at the Establishment Division, Finance Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan, Director at the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), and Deputy General Manager at the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).

His international experience includes serving as Senior Advisor to an Executive Director at the World Bank Group in Washington D.C., and as Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of Pakistan in Athens, representing Pakistan in key economic, financial, and diplomatic engagements at the global level.

As Secretary Planning, he has played an instrumental role in advancing data-driven decision making and strengthening Pakistan’s development ecosystem. He has supervised major national initiatives undertaken by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, including the digital Population and Housing Census, the 7th Agricultural Census, and broader statistical reforms supporting evidence-based planning.

Mr. Sumra holds a Master’s in Finance from London Business School, an MBA from Stockholm University, a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the Punjab. His extensive administrative, financial, and international experience positions him as a key driver of institutional reform and national development planning in Pakistan.