Azam Jamil

country head of Siddiqi Hospitality

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Azam Jamil is a hospitality professional and the Country Head of Siddiqi Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. He worked for the Aga Khan for 21 years and was Chief Operating Officer of Hashoo Hotels. He has also served as tourism SAPM, a special assistant to the Prime Minister.

Early life and background

Jamil attended Burn Hall, a boarding school. He has close friends from his years at Burn Hall in Abbottabad. He says Burn Hall was called the Eton of the East, and that many of its students went straight from school into the army. He keeps a 1961 Burn Hall photograph and a 1964 Aitchison photograph at home. [1]

Jamil says Aitchison was more feudal and bureaucratic, while Burn Hall was more military. He says his school was governed by missionaries who had their own set of values, which played a large part in his foundational training. He says the school environment shaped him more than the academics did, and that boarding school taught him bonding, which he feels is lacking today. [1]

Education

Jamil says he passed his O-levels and that he aimed to finish around 15th in a class of 30. He went to Karachi University, where he studied BA Economics. He says he has few close friends from university. [1]

Career

After graduating, Intercontinental hired Jamil and sent him to Cornell. He spent eight years with Intercontinental Hotels. He says he was pushed into hospitality but came to love it. [1]

Jamil says Air Marshal Noor Khan told him to come to his office the next morning after a game of tennis at a club. Noor Khan told him he would judge his character in adversity. [1]

Jamil says he was working for the World Bank at 22 while still a student. He says he gave a half-hour presentation on using digital media to bring transparency. [1]

Jamil spent a few years in the US. He says he and others bought into a Best Western hotel and managed it, describing it as a mom-and-pop operation. He spent four or five years in the textile business, joining someone who needed help. [1]

Aga Khan and Serena Hotels

Under the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, Jamil worked for Serena Hotels. He was on the project team for the Islamabad Serena hotel. He worked for the Aga Khan for 21 years, and says his best years were spent with the Aga Khan. While working for Serena Hotels, he met Sheikh Mubarak Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. [1]

Jamil says the Aga Khan model succeeds by involving the local community, and that the Aga Khan organisations really look after people. He says a share of Shigar Fort's profits goes to the Shigar village. [1]

Hashoo Hotels

Jamil was Chief Operating Officer of Hashoo Hotels for his last three years there. After retiring from Hashoo, he did training and development projects. [1]

Special assistant to the Prime Minister

Jamil says a call from the Prime Minister led to a government role. He served as tourism SAPM, a special assistant to the Prime Minister, rather than as a minister. He reported directly to Imran Khan as SAPM. He says visa requests for 10,000 Sikhs bound for Kartarpur reached his table in government. [1]

Jamil says his time in government lasted five months. He says he was asked to leave government. [1]

Siddiqi Hospitality

Jamil is the Country Head of Siddiqi Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. He says the owners are two Canadian-based brothers, one living in Baltimore and the other in Ottawa, and that they have put him at the helm. He says he is starting many projects the owners had planned. He has said the owners were ready to invest 40, 50 or 100 million dollars in Pakistan. [1]

Jamil has said the projects include resorts, hotels and a global e-portal. He has said a purchase of 900 kanals of land is under way. He has said the resort will cover more than 30 acres and lies about an hour and a half from Islamabad. He says the drawings were complete before he joined. [1]

Jamil says the intent is for visitors to experience Pakistan as they never have before. He has said architects including Kamil Khan Mumtaz worked on the project, and that the plans include a wellness facility where visitors can detox for 10 days. He describes his current role as a 9-to-5 job. [1]

Hospitality education

Jamil says he set up two hospitality schools in the last five years. He set up one hospitality school for Akhuwat and one for the Hashoo Group. He says each school will produce about 400 graduates in two or three years. [1]

Jamil says hospitality will be the largest global employer over the next ten years, and that airline management counts as hospitality. He says a building is only worth the people who serve in it. [1]

Views on tourism

Jamil says PIA is struggling because it runs non-core businesses. He describes it as an airline of the 1970s trying to survive in 2023. He says anyone a person wanted to please with a job would be placed at PIA. [1]

Jamil says devolving tourism under the 18th Amendment was a mistake, and that tourism has to be run as a national project. He says Taxila, a World Heritage Site, is split between Punjab and KP, and that five or six different people are often responsible for the same project. He has long argued that tourism businesses should be run by the private sector. [1]

Jamil says tourists want ease and dislike inconvenience. He says treating tourists as potential criminals drives them away, and that security fears must be addressed before tourism can grow. He says photographing a bridge in Gilgit that breaks each year is not allowed. He says he wanted to build roadside bathrooms on the KKH modelled on Hascol. [1]

Jamil says a cockroach-filled bathroom matters more to tourists than K2's height, and that bad news now spreads faster because of phones and social media. He told the Prime Minister that the problem is Pakistan's own house, not its assets. He says roads, medical facilities and bathrooms needed by tourists are missing, and that tourism needs will and competent people. [1]

Jamil says Pakistan's coast is among the most unused areas on the planet. He says that, in the unlikely event of being given the task, he would start from the rivers, which are close to most of the population. He proposes a three-hour cruise from Kalabagh as a tourism product. He says southern Pakistan is insufferable for eight months of the year. [1]

Jamil says a country of 240 million people does not need foreign tourists for now. He describes foreign tourists as the cherry on the cake. He says tourism starts with domestic visitors, which form the foundation. [1]

Views on young people and schooling

Jamil says the youth need a glimmer of hope, and that he does not lie to them. He says young people are a generation of instant gratification, and that work and skill cannot be acquired instantly. He tells young people to start looking inside themselves for the causes of their problems. [1]

Jamil says Pakistan's youth is despondent and demotivated. He says Pakistan is ageist, with parliament full of people in their seventies, and that once a job is made big, nobody wants to leave it. [1]

Jamil says Pakistan will survive, though it is deep in trouble. He calls himself a hopeless romantic about Pakistan. He says his motivation is to get young people to help fix the country, and that he will keep talking to young people until his last breath. He says there has not been a day in 69 years when he has not tried to fix the country. [1]

Jamil says sports has been removed from schools, so children cannot cope with losing. He says schools have failed to teach children how to lose. He says to look for the first couple who went to the principal's office to ask why a teacher had stopped their child. [1]

Personal life

Jamil says he chose to send his three children to the finest schools instead of buying a house. He says he lives in a rented house. [1]

Jamil says he has volunteered to serve Pakistan for 35 years, and that he went from street to street teaching people. He estimates he has spoken to about 200,000 young people in the last 35 years. He says he has never charged schools or universities for talks, but that he charges corporate Pakistan because he has to keep the kitchen running. He describes passion as doing well at work that you are not paid for. [1]

Jamil says flying, tennis and acting were hobbies, and hospitality was his profession. He says he is a musician, and members of Vital Signs used to play with him. He describes himself as a pro tennis player. He flew for an air search and rescue service in the 1980s. [1]

Timeline

1980s
Flew for an air search and rescue service.[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2023-04-05 Why Pakistan's tourism problem isn't K2 Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Azam Jamil?

Azam Jamil is the Country Head of Siddiqi Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. He worked for the Aga Khan for 21 years. He has also served as tourism SAPM, a special assistant to the Prime Minister.[1]

What does Azam Jamil do?

Azam Jamil is the Country Head of Siddiqi Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. He describes his current role as a 9-to-5 job. He says he set up two hospitality schools in the last five years.[1]

Where did Azam Jamil study?

Azam Jamil attended Burn Hall, a boarding school. He went to Karachi University, where he studied BA Economics.[1]

What company does Azam Jamil lead?

Azam Jamil is the Country Head of Siddiqi Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. He has said the projects include resorts, hotels and a global e-portal.[1]

What was Azam Jamil's role in government?

Azam Jamil served as tourism SAPM, a special assistant to the Prime Minister, rather than as a minister. He reported directly to Imran Khan as SAPM. He says his time in government lasted five months.[1]

How long did Azam Jamil work for the Aga Khan?

Azam Jamil worked for the Aga Khan for 21 years. Under the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, he worked for Serena Hotels.[1]

Which hospitality schools did Azam Jamil set up?

Azam Jamil says he set up two hospitality schools in the last five years. He set up one for Akhuwat and one for the Hashoo Group. He says each school will produce about 400 graduates in two or three years.[1]

References

  1. Why Pakistan's tourism problem isn't K2 . Thought Behind Things , 2023-04-05.
Show the source passages (114 statements)
  1. He says Burn Hall was called the Eton of the East. Burn Hall was actually called the Eton of the East.
  2. He attended Burn Hall, a boarding school. Burn Hall, you know, when you're in a boarding school, it's literally survival.
  3. He has close friends from his years at Burn Hall in Abbottabad. I have friends from Abbottabad, Burn Hall who are still close friends.
  4. He keeps a 1961 Burn Hall photograph and a 1964 Aitchison photograph at home. There's a Burn Hall picture of 1961 and there's a Aitchison picture of 1964.
  5. He says Aitchison was more feudal and bureaucratic, while Burn Hall was more military. And so Aitchison was more feudal, more bureaucratic. Burn Hall was more military.
  6. He says many Burn Hall students went straight from school into the army. A lot of the kids who went to the army went from Burn Hall because, you know, they just they just jumped the fence and walked to PMA.
  7. He says his school was governed by missionaries who had their own set of values, which played a large part in his foundational training. We were governed by missionaries and missionaries had their own value set.
  8. He says the school environment shaped him more than the academics did. But I think the environment played a much bigger part in my upbringing than the academics.
  9. He says boarding school taught him bonding, which he feels is lacking today. So it taught you bonding, something that we all talk about these days and we say it's lacking in our lives.
  10. He says he has few close friends from university. I hardly have any friends from university, you know.
  11. He says he passed his O-levels. When I took my O-levels and I called Dad and I said, uh woh O-levels ka result aa gaya hai and he said, pass ke fail? And I said, pass and he hung up on me.
  12. He says he aimed to finish around 15th in a class of 30. if there was a class of 30, I my target was to be around 15. That was my goal of life.
  13. He went to Karachi University. Then I went to Karachi University.
  14. He studied BA Economics at Karachi University. So what was this uh what was the program that you did from Karachi University? Oh, BA Economics. Acha.
  15. After graduating, Intercontinental hired him and sent him to Cornell. And after my graduation, I got hired by Intercontinental and they sent me to Cornell.
  16. Air Marshal Noor Khan told him to come to his office the next morning after a game of tennis at a club. I was playing tennis at the Sindh Club with Air Marshal Noor Khan and he said, kya kar rahe ho? So I looked at him and said, what do you mean kya kar rahe ho? I've graduated. I don't have to do anything right now, you know? And he said, my office tomorrow morning.
  17. He says he was pushed into hospitality but came to love it. I said, I know I was forced into it, but then I loved it.
  18. At 22 he was working for the World Bank while still a student. I was working for the World Bank at 22. I was still studying and I had made a video or two that went viral
  19. He says he gave a half-hour presentation on using digital media to bring transparency. I remember I gave an entire presentation. Uh saara kuch woh aadha ghanta maine bataya ki kitna transparency la sakte hain aap digital media ko istemaal karke
  20. Under the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, he worked for Serena Hotels. Aur Aga Khan mein under the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development was Serena Hotels, so I worked for Serena Hotels.
  21. He was on the project team for the Islamabad Serena hotel. So, Islamabad Serena was, you know, I was in the project team.
  22. He says his best years were spent with the Aga Khan. my best years of my life were spent with the Aga Khan.
  23. He worked for the Aga Khan for 21 years. I worked for the Aga Khan for 21 years
  24. He says he and others bought into a Best Western hotel and managed it, describing it as a mom-and-pop operation. We bought into a Best Western hotel, so we managed it. It was mom and pop operation.
  25. He spent a few years in the US. I spent a few years in the US.
  26. He spent eight years with Intercontinental Hotels. Then eight years with Intercontinental Hotels.
  27. He spent four or five years in the textile business, joining someone who needed help. he needed some help, so I joined him in textile, those four or five years.
  28. He was Chief Operating Officer of Hashoo Hotels for his last three years there. I was Chief Operating Officer for Hashoo Hotels for last three years before I retired from there.
  29. After retiring from Hashoo, he did training and development projects. when I retired from there, then I was just doing random training and, you know, development projects.
  30. A call from the Prime Minister led to a government role. And then I got a call from the Prime Minister and then I was there
  31. He served as tourism SAPM, a special assistant to the Prime Minister. As tourism SAPM, I get complaints.
  32. He served as an SAPM rather than a minister. And that's why I was SAPM and I was not minister or something because technically minister ho nahi sakta, right?
  33. He reported directly to Imran Khan as SAPM. this is with the Chief Secretary of a province and SAPM reporting directly to Imran Khan.
  34. He says he was asked to leave government. when I was asked to leave the government
  35. He says his time in government lasted five months. My stint with the government was five months.
  36. He says visa requests for 10,000 Sikhs bound for Kartarpur reached his table in government. we had on my table visa requests for 10,000 Sikhs. 10,000 Sikhs, all heading to Kartarpur.
  37. Azam Jamil is the Country Head of Siddiqi Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. Azam Jamil is the Country Head of Siddiqi Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.
  38. He says the owners are two Canadian-based brothers, one living in Baltimore and the other in Ottawa. And these are Canadian-based brothers, one lives in Baltimore, the other in Ottawa.
  39. He says the owners have put him at the helm. And they've put me at the helm.
  40. He says he is starting many projects the owners had planned. So, a lot of projects that they had envisaged, I'm starting them.
  41. Azam has said the owners were ready to invest 40, 50 or 100 million dollars in Pakistan. they were ready to pump in 40, 50, 100 million dollars into Pakistan
  42. Azam has said the projects include resorts, hotels and a global e-portal. Resorts, you know, there's a global e-portal, holiday resorts, hotels, a lot of projects.
  43. Azam has said a purchase of 900 kanals of land is under way. And we're buying 900 kanals.
  44. Azam has said the resort will cover more than 30 acres. And if you walk into this resort, which, you know, will be over 30 acres of resort, that's that's the size.
  45. Azam has said the resort is about an hour and a half from Islamabad. And it's about an hour and a half from Islamabad.
  46. He says the drawings were complete before he joined them. The drawings were complete before I joined them.
  47. He says the intent is for visitors to experience Pakistan as they never have before. they want you to experience Pakistan like you've never experienced before.
  48. Azam has said architects including Kamil Khan Mumtaz worked on the project. So, Kamil Khan Mumtaz and all those die-hard architects have worked on the project.
  49. Azam has said the plans include a wellness facility where visitors can detox for 10 days. there's a wellness and stuff that you can go detox for 10 days
  50. He describes his current role as a 9-to-5 job. But right now, it's a 9 to 5 job for me.
  51. He says he set up two hospitality schools in the last five years. one thing that I've done in the last five years, I've set up two gold standard hospitality schools.
  52. He set up one hospitality school for Akhuwat and one for the Hashoo Group. So, I've set up one for Akhuwat and one for the Hashoo Group, okay?
  53. He says each school will produce about 400 graduates in two or three years. In about two or three years' time, they will churn out 400 kids each
  54. He says hospitality will be the largest global employer over the next ten years. hospitality is your largest employer for the next 10 years globally, okay?
  55. He says airline management counts as hospitality. So, hospitality is no longer linked with uh, a hotel, okay? Airline management is hospitality.
  56. He says a building is only worth the people who serve in it. Uh, the building is only worth the people who serve it.
  57. He says PIA is struggling because it runs non-core businesses. The biggest reason why PIA is not functioning, Muzamil, is we are running non-core businesses.
  58. He says PIA is an airline of the 1970s trying to survive in 2023. It's a '70s airline trying to survive in 2023.
  59. He says anyone a person wanted to please with a job would be placed at PIA. Anybody you wanted to please and give a job, you just dumped him to PIA, okay?
  60. He says devolving tourism under the 18th Amendment was a mistake. I think one mistake we made with tourism is that we devolved it under the 18th Amendment.
  61. He says tourism has to be run as a national project. tourism has to be a national project.
  62. He says Taxila, a World Heritage Site, is split between Punjab and KP. do you know Taxila, uh, is a World Heritage Site? Half of Taxila is under Punjab, the other half under KP.
  63. He says five or six different people are often responsible for the same project. five or six different people are responsible for the same project.
  64. He has long argued that tourism businesses should be run by the private sector. That's why I have always harped ke yeh private sector ka kaam hai, unko karne dein.
  65. He says the Aga Khan model succeeds by involving the local community. Aga Khan's success model is involving the community.
  66. He says the Aga Khan organisations really look after people. This is what the AKDN does, they really look after people.
  67. He says a share of Shigar Fort's profits goes to the Shigar village. Shigar Fort humne banaya, Shigar Fort ke percentage of profits Shigar village ko jaata hai bhai.
  68. He says he wanted to build roadside bathrooms on the KKH modelled on Hascol. I was wanting to make bathroom on the KKH very similar to the Hascol model
  69. He says tourists want ease and dislike inconvenience. tourists do not like inconvenience. Tourists like ease.
  70. He says treating tourists as potential criminals drives them away. you when you treat that tourist as a potential criminal who's coming to harm your country, toh who is going to come?
  71. He says security fears must be addressed before tourism can grow. First of all, for tourism to flourish, we need to get rid of our security phobia.
  72. He says photographing a bridge in Gilgit that breaks each year is not allowed. Jo pul Gilgit mein on the way to Shamshal, jo pul toot-ta hai har saal aur gaon wale usko jodte hain, us pul ki tasveer utarna mana hai.
  73. He says Pakistan's coast is among the most unused areas on the planet. Uh, our coastal area is the most unutilized area on the planet.
  74. He says that, in the unlikely event of being given the task, he would start from the rivers. uh in the unlikely event, uh I would start from the rivers.
  75. He says rivers are close to most of the population. Doosra, rivers are close to a majority of your population.
  76. He proposes a three-hour cruise from Kalabagh as a tourism product. all you have to do is have a three-hour cruise down the Kalabagh.
  77. He says southern Pakistan is insufferable for eight months of the year. Pakistan is insufferable eight months of the year down south.
  78. He says a country of 240 million people does not need foreign tourists for now. any country that has 240 million people really doesn't need foreigners for now.
  79. He describes foreign tourists as the cherry on the cake. A foreigner is basically the cherry on the cake.
  80. He says tourism starts with domestic visitors, which form the foundation. That's where tourism starts. It forms the foundation.
  81. He says a cockroach-filled bathroom matters more to tourists than K2's height. When you enter a bathroom and there are five cockroaches there, it doesn't matter if K2 is 8,611 meters.
  82. He told the Prime Minister that the problem is Pakistan's own house, not its assets. It's not about our assets, Prime Minister, our house is not in order.
  83. He says bad news now spreads faster because of phones and social media. Now, that cockroach is shot with your mobile phone and Instagram and everybody knows it before the hotel manager knows it.
  84. He says roads, medical facilities and bathrooms needed by tourists are missing. We don't have roads, we don't have medical facilities, you don't have bathrooms, Muzamil.
  85. He says tourism needs will and competent people. We need will and also we need competent people
  86. He says the youth need a glimmer of hope, and that he does not lie to them. I want to give them a glimmer of hope, okay? And this is not lying to them.
  87. He says young people are a generation of instant gratification. You guys are the generation of instant gratification.
  88. He says work and skill cannot be acquired instantly. There's no instant gratification in work or in the acquisition of any skill.
  89. He tells young people to start looking inside themselves for the causes of their problems. So, the first thing I tell them is yaar, start looking inside.
  90. He says Pakistan will survive, though it is deep in trouble. we couldn't be deeper in the hole. But I think we will survive.
  91. He calls himself a hopeless romantic about Pakistan. I'm just a hopeless romantic.
  92. His motivation is to get young people to help fix the country. My motivation is to tell them to, you know, fix this country, yaar.
  93. He says he will keep talking to young people until his last breath. And it's until my last breath, Muzamil, I will walk into every room and talk to every youngster
  94. He says Pakistan's youth is despondent and demotivated. The youth is uh despondent, there's no question about it.
  95. He says Pakistan is ageist, with parliament full of people in their seventies. Our parliament is full of 70-year-olds
  96. He says that once a job is made big, nobody wants to leave it. Jab naukri badi kar dete ho phir usko koi chhodna nahi chahta.
  97. He says sports has been removed from schools, so children cannot cope with losing. So the minute you removed sports from the system, the first disservice you did was ki bacho ko ab haarna nahi aata.
  98. He says schools have failed to teach children how to lose. the biggest disservice the school system is doing is they're not teaching our kids to lose.
  99. He says to look for the first couple who went to the principal's office to ask why a teacher had stopped their child. look for the first couple who went to the principal's office and said, is teacher ne hamare bache ko kyun roka?
  100. Noor Khan told him he would judge his character in adversity. And Noor Khan, when I was leaving him, he said one thing to me other than the advice he gave me. He said, Azam, I will judge your character in adversity.
  101. He says he chose to send his three children to the finest schools instead of buying a house. Because I had to make a choice that send three kids to the finest schools in the world or make a house.
  102. He says he lives in a rented house. main abhi bhi kiraye ke ghar mein rehta hoon.
  103. He says he has volunteered to serve Pakistan for 35 years. I've been serving Pakistan for 35 years as a volunteer.
  104. He says he went from street to street teaching people. Main toh gali gali, muhalle muhalle mein jaa ke logon ko padhata tha.
  105. He estimates he has spoken to about 200,000 young people in the last 35 years. maybe it's 200,000 kids I've spoken to in the last 35 years, I haven't charged a dime.
  106. He says he has never charged schools or universities for talks. But I've never charged a dime to the schools or the universities.
  107. He says he charges corporate Pakistan because he has to keep the kitchen running. Yeah, to corporate Pakistan, I charge because I've got to get the kitchen running, right?
  108. He describes passion as doing well at work that you are not paid for. Woh kaam kitna accha karte ho jis ke paise nahi milte?
  109. He says flying, tennis and acting were hobbies, and hospitality was his profession. flying was never a profession. Tennis was never a profession. Acting was never a profession. You know, nothing was a profession. Profession was hospitality.
  110. He says he is a musician, and members of Vital Signs used to play with him. and I'm a musician too, and all these Vital Signs and all used to play with me and stuff like that.
  111. He describes himself as a pro tennis player. So, as a pro tennis player, uh one of the downsides of being an athlete
  112. He flew for an air search and rescue service in the 1980s. I flew for Air Search and Rescue and uh you know, this was way back in the '80s.
  113. While working for Serena Hotels, he met Sheikh Mubarak Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. when I was working for Serena Hotels, I was in Abu Dhabi once and I met His Highness Sheikh Mubarak Al Nahyan
  114. He says there has not been a day in 69 years when he has not tried to fix the country. for 69 years, Muzamil, there is not a day I've sat at home not trying to fix this country.