World Bank President Ajay Banga, a US citizen of Indian origin, visited his ancestral home in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Tuesday. Banga was born in Maharashtra in 1959 but traces his ancestry to this part of pre-1947 undivided India.
World Bank President Ajay Banga, wearing a blue turban, with his wife and others during a visit to his ancestral home in Khushab district of Pakistan’s Punjab province on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (PTI photo)He is on a four-day high-level visit to Pakistan, which ends on Wednesday, with a mix of professional and personal engagements. The walls of his ancestral village were full of his posters, and locals gathered to watch “a boy return home”.
On Monday, Banga, among the most Sikh faces worldwide, also visited Hasan Abdal’s Gurdwara Sri Panja Sahib, where he offered prayers. This temple, associated with the first Sikh Guru Guru Nanak, is among the most prominent ones to have ended up in Pakistan, even as most Sikhs migrated to India during Partition.
Banga and his wife were accompanied by Pakistan’s federal minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and provincial minister Ramesh Singh Arora, who also heads the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.
Banga was born in November 1959 in Kharki, a small town in Maharashtra. He graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and did his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
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Prior to joining the World Bank Group, he served as Vice-Chairman of General Atlantic and prior to that as President and CEO of MasterCard. He became a US citizen in 2007.
Ramesh Singh Arora said Sikhs around the world, including India, “share a bond of love” with Pakistan due to the presence of their holy religious sites.
Banga has not made any public statement.
On Sunday, Banga, accompanied by his wife and senior officials visited the Joulian Buddhist archaeological site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khanpur.
His visit, on the professional side, included discussions with senior government officials on ongoing projects and key policy issues, Pakistan’s state media reported on Sunday as he landed.
The visit comes at a time when Pakistan and the World Bank are preparing to implement a 10-year partnership framework to provide a $20 billion loan to the cash-strapped country. The World Bank loan for Pakistan, due to start this year, will focus on education quality, child stunting, climate resilience, energy efficiency, inclusive development and private investment, local channels reported.
“During his stay, he will discuss economic reforms, development projects and key policy issues with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials,” state-run PTV said.
Pakistan, which is set to default on its foreign debt obligations in 2023, is currently trying to stabilize its economy under a $7-billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
In December 2025, the World Bank approved $700 million in financing for Pakistan under a multi-year initiative. This follows a $48 million grant in August to improve primary education in Pakistan’s Punjab, the country’s most populous province.
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Ajay Banga currently has wider implications than being the head of the World Bank, as he is on US President Donald Trump’s peace board aimed at resolving the conflict and rebuilding Gaza and other conflict-torn parts of the world.
At the World Bank Group, he begins his five-year term on June 2, 2023.
The WB website says he had a clear mandate: to transform the 80-year-old institution into a faster, more efficient and more influential partner in development.
“Since taking office, Ajay has led the adoption of a new vision and mission for the World Bank: to create a world free of poverty – a livable planet,” the WB website says of him.
(with input from PTI)
