The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), one of the best business schools in Pakistan, has cancelled a talk by top economist Atif R Mian on Pakistan’s poor economic growth without any plausible cause.
In a tweet, the IBA wrote: “Dr Atif R. Mian’s lecture “Why has economic growth fallen behind in Pakistan?” scheduled on November 5, 2020 has been cancelled. Inconvenience is highly regretted.” There was no further explanation by the school on why the lecture was cancelled. Dr Mian has yet to comment on the development.
Observers say that the economist was disinvited from the lecture probably because of his affiliation with the minority Ahmadiyya community. However, this is not the first time Atif Mian, who teaches at ivy league Princeton, has faced discrimination due to his faith.
He was appointed by Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Economic Advisory Council after the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). However, the post was short-lived after the government came under fire for appointing an Ahmadi to the economic body. It subsequently backtracked and sacked Atif Mian from the advisory council, much to the chagrin of progressive quarters.
Dr Atif is John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Finance at Princeton University, and director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Woodrow Wilson School. He is the first and only person of Pakistani origins to have been named on the IMF’s list of ‘top 25 brightest young economists.’
The 39-year-old has dedicated his time to studying the connections between finance and the macro economy. An expert on international debt markets, his latest book, House of Debt, builds on data to describe how debt precipitated the ‘Great Recession’. He is often the go-to economist for the world media on the subject.