Advancing Economic Measurement, Data Analysis and Analytics, and Evidence-Based Policy for Pakistan
Professor of Economics · Ex-Director, School of Economics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad
I work at the intersection of economic measurement, data analysis and analytics, and public policy. With over two decades of research, institutional leadership, and hands-on training, my work bridges the gap between how we measure our economy and how we make decisions about it.
I combine rigorous applied econometrics with modern data tools to address Pakistan’s most pressing measurement and policy challenges — from measuring economy to automation and digital statistical systems.
What I Work On
📊 Economic Measurement & Reform
GDP base-year revision, CPI methodology, national accounts modernization, and measuring Pakistan’s evolving digital economy. My PIDE analysis on GDP measurement and 2008 paper on CPI biases pioneered this conversation in Pakistan.
🤖 AI, Data Governance & Official Statistics
Critical analysis of Pakistan’s National AI Policy, digital statistical infrastructure for PBS, and the governance frameworks needed to deploy AI responsibly in public institutions.
📈 Applied Econometrics & Causal Inference
Graph-theoretic approaches to causality, structural modeling, impact evaluation, and machine learning for classification — published in Taylor & Francis, Springer, SAGE, and Elsevier.
💻 Data Science for Development
R programming, data visualization, reproducible research, and open-source tools for policy analysts. I teach economists to code and analysts to think critically — with 50+ open-source repositories.
🏛️ Institutional Leadership
Director of the School of Economics and former Registrar at Quaid-i-Azam University. Member of the RASTA Research Advisory Committee for policy-oriented research. Former Chairman, Department of Statistics, QAU. Senior faculty at NIBAF, State Bank of Pakistan.
🎓 Human Capital & Education Reform
Rethinking how Pakistan teaches economics — from textbook memorization to data literacy, critical reasoning, and reproducible research. Read my piece on higher education reform →
Featured Work
📝 Pakistan’s AI Policy: A Vision Without Teeth
A critical analysis of Pakistan’s National AI Policy 2025 — what it gets right, what it leaves out, and what must change.
📝 GDP Measurement and LSM Methodology
Co-authored with Mahmood Khalid at PIDE — on why Pakistan’s GDP base-year revision is overdue and how measurement errors distort policy.
📄 Biases in Consumer Price Index Methodology in Pakistan
Published in The Pakistan Development Review (2008) — a foundational critique of PBS’s CPI methodology with concrete suggestions for improvement.
💻 R Tutorials & Open Data Projects
Applied Econometrics with R, Impact Evaluation tools, Data Visualization, PDF data extraction, Election data analysis — all open source.
Roles & Affiliations
| Role | Institution |
|---|---|
| Professor & Director | School of Economics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad |
| Former Registrar | Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad |
| Former Chairman | Department of Statistics, Quaid-i-Azam University |
| RAC Member | RASTA Competitive Grants Program, PIDE |
| Former Senior Faculty | National Institute of Banking & Finance (NIBAF), State Bank of Pakistan |