Sayyid Dhia Jafar Hasem al-Musawi (Arabic: ضياء جعفر هاشم الموسوي; 1910–1992)[1][2] was an Iraqi engineer and statesman who held various ministerial positions during the monarchy in Iraq.
His father was a merchant,[6] from a notable family in Al-Kadhimiya,[7] that claim agnatic descent from Musa al-Kadhim[1] through his son Ibrahim al-Mortada Al-Asghar,[8] who was the ruler of Yemen and then of Mecca in the wake of the Third Hijri century.
[12] Jafar was appointed as Minister of Economy in the early 1950s and continued to lead the intense oil negotiations on the side of the Iraqi delegation, which lasted for more than three years and resulted in a landmark 50/50 profit-sharing agreement in 1951.
One of Jafar's main projects as Minister of Finance was the establishment of a gold standard for the Iraqi Dinar, disconnecting the currency from sterling.
He was a central member of the Development Board, an organization and planning body of decision-makers, technical experts and politicians around Prime Minister Nuri as-Said.
Several important buildings and structures were planned and erected in cooperation with known architects like Le Corbusier, Gio Ponti and Frank Lloyd Wright.
[12] At the time of the 1958 Iraqi Military Coup, Jafar was receiving medical treatment in London and subsequently exiled himself in the UK.