Iftikhar Ahmed (Swiss lawmaker)

Iftikhar Ahmed (Bengali: ইফতেখার আহমেদ) a development economist and author, is the first Bangladeshi born Swiss lawmaker. He is a former International Labour Organization (ILO) official.

He was born in Bangladesh, and has lived in Switzerland for last 40 years as Swiss Citizen. His father late Dr Momtazuddin Ahmed was the founder vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University.

He took his oath in the Parliament (Conseil Communale) as a Swiss Lawmaker on Tuesday December 15, 2015 in the outskirts of Geneva.

As an economist, he served for three decades (1974-2004) in the employment sector of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva as the editor-in-chief of the International Labour Review and director of the ILO's Bureau of Publications.

Previously, he was a post-doctoral associate at the Iowa State University of Science and Technology, the USA, a visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom; and associate professor of Economics, Dhaka University. He, was the elected general secretary of the first Bangladesh Economic Association (1974) of the vice-president FH Hall Union (1964-65) of Dhaka University.

His published works are the Voices of the Working Children and Their Parents: Will Anyone Listen? (London, Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd, 2015) and the Technological Change and Agrarian Structure: A Study of Bangladesh (Geneva, ILO, 1981). Moreover, he is a co-author of a number of other publications.