SochBichar

Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, in this Podcast discusses the Current Economic situation of Pakistan, Post elections political landscape and the way forward with the next IMF Program. All-time high inflation rates and record fuel prices have put households under tremendous stress. Add to this dwindling foreign exchange reserves and the devastating floods of the past summer and prospects of these pressures being released in the near future remain slim. And while the scale and depth of the current economic crisis is bigger than any we have previously experienced, it's nothing new. So why do we consistently go from one balance of payment crisis to the next? And what reforms need to be enacted for a permanent fix? Speaker: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, Vice Chancellor - PIDE Watch the Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewDJF9uSxhY    #Pakistan #Economy #IMF #IMFprogram #Loan #Debt #foreignaid #politics #elections #Reform #WorldBank #Tax #Inflation #EnergyPrices #Governance #Expenditure #Austerity   For Further Details Please Visit: www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/ https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/ 

How can Pakistan get out of the IMF program? We never seen to have a conceptual meeting in the Government of Pakistan. We are always in the fire fighting mode, Research is valuable for Policy making.   #PakistanEconomy #IMF #Pakistan #IMF #Pakistan #PakistanEconomy #politics #investment #development #debt #fuel #fuelprices #dollar #dollarvspkr    For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad 

Quality decision-making is based on your decision-making skills. As with any skill, improvement requires learning and understanding how to perform the elements of the skill well and then practicing the techniques to do them well. We all can improve our decision-making skills.   #DecisionMaking #EssentialSkills #Youth #Employment #Investment #Business #pakistan #development #economy #politics    Prof. Ralph L. Keeney Research Professor Emeritus, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University   For Further Details Please Visit:  www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/ https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/

PIDE invited Mr. Pranab Bardhan for a Lecture on his book titled "A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich & Poor Countries"   #globaleconomy #Rich #Poor #Democracy #Politics #Booklaunch #PranabBardhan #UniversityofBerkley #insecurity #insecurities #Global #Pakistan #India    Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, Vice Chancellor, PIDE Speaker: Pranab Bardhan, Distinguished Emeritus Prof. of Economics, University of California, Berkeley   For Further Details Please Visit: www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/  https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/ 

PIDE is conducting a countrywide survey of more than 40K people around Pakistan. This is an introductory PIDE Debate to unveil some interesting facts about the initial results received, about the BASICS (Beliefs, Attitudes, Social Capital, Institutions, Community & Self).   Host: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque (Vice Chancellor PIDE) Speaker: Dr. Durre Nayab (Director Research PIDE)   Survey Reports Pdf: https://pide.org.pk/?tx_research-sub-category=basics-notes    For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad   #technobladedeath #technoblade #pakistannews #pakistannewslive #PIDE #PakistanEconomy #NoamChomsky #Chomsky #PakistanCrisis #PakistanEconomyCrisis #Debate #PIDEDebate #Economy #Economics #BASICS 

PIDE hosted a Webinar on "Road Transportation: The Unregulated Entirety Part – 2" #transportation #Pakistan #Economy #Regulations #financialcrisis   Moderator: Nadeem Ul Haque, Vice Chancellor, PIDE Speakers : Abdur Rehman, COO, Faisal Movers Malik Waqar Haider, Group Head, International Business & Projects, Faisal Movers Nauman Hafeez, Head of Operations Faisal Movers   For Further Details Please Visit: www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/ https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/

There is a lot of Debate about Economic Reforms & Charter of Economy in Pakistan on Tv Channels Talk Shows & everywhere. PIDE as a premiere research Think-tank of Pakistan, has recently published a living draft for "Charter of Economy in Pakistan" #Pakistan #Economy #Reform #development #politics #charterofeconomy #investment #reforms #debate #CharterofEconomy #Reforms #Pakistanideas #Ideas  Charter of Economy Draft: https://pide.org.pk/research/pides-charter-of-economy-petition-to-all-the-political-leaders-parties-of-pakistan/ Twitter Thread: https://twitter.com/PIDEpk/status/1604860552643284993?s=20&t=HGPzsufqxPiMXfESII1Waw   For Further Details Please Visit: www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/ https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/ 

PIDE Hosted a Seminar/Webinar with Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad, Economic Adviser, Finance Division, Government of Pakistan to present "Monthly Economic Update & Outlook, Government Of Pakistan" #Pakistan #Economy #Outlook #EconomicOutLook #development #investment #charterofeconomy #politics #default #pakistaneconomy #productivity #News For Further Details Please Visit: www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/ https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/

PIDE webinar on "Corporate Bankruptcy in Pakistan" with Mr. Feisal Naqvi, Renowned Lawyer of Pakistan. PIDE Webinar with Feisal Naqvi. Complete Webinar was live telecasted at: https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad 

PIDE hosted Webinar on CSS Exam Processes, Merit, Bureaucracy and Transparency in these Exams and FPSC. Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, Vice Chancellor, PIDE Webinar Speaker : Mr. Ramiz Ahmed, Director General, Recruitment, Federal Public Service Commission Mr. Umar Cheema, Investigative Journalist Mr. Muhammad Saleem Ahmad Ranjha, Renowned Former Civil Servant and Founding Director, Akhuwat   Complete Webinar was live telecasted at: https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad 

PIDE Webinar with Professor Ayesha Jalal, from Tufts University, A Famous Historian. Complete Webinar was live telecasted at: https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad   For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial  www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad 

Currently 200 families control our politics. Monopolies undermines democratic norms, causes corruption & bad governance, also undermine fundamental rights of individuals & marginalized association. To deepen democracy & empower electorates it is imperative to weaken monopolies. Complete Video can also be watched on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/ https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/

PIDE has initiated a series of conversation for the "Economy of Pakistan" This is the 6th Conversation with Mr. Arshad Zaman, A Renowned Economist of Pakistan, to discuss the real issues.   Webinar Speaker: Dr. Arshad Zaman, Renowned Economist Webinar Date: Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 11:00 AM PST Complete Video of this webinar can also be watched on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk https://www.youtube.com/c/PIDEOfficial/ https://twitter.com/PIDEpk https://www.facebook.com/PIDEIslamabad https://www.linkedin.com/in/pidepk/ https://www.instagram.com/pidepk/ 

Webinar Date : Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 02:00 PM PST Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, Vice Chancellor PIDE Webinar Presenter: Shakil Durrani   At PIDE webinar, Shakil Durrani says: There is so much patronage in the Power Sector, one part is monetization. The losses in the power sector are huge. As a citizen of Pakistan, it really pains when your circular debt is that high.

Host: Dr. Abdul Jalil (Professor of Economics at PIDE) Speaker: Professor Joel Mokyr. Professor of Economics and History in North-western University. He specializes in economic history, the economics of technological change and the economics of population change. Details: Industrial Revolution: Why or Why Not? Why was Industrial Revolution Inevitable? Why did it happen in Europe? Why Not in the Indo-Pak subcontinent? What was the difference, Wisdom, Aptitude or Attitude? Did Institutions Play an Important Role in Happening the Industrial Revolution? Do Elites Matter for the Industrial Revolution, Economy and Institutions? What are the implications for Pakistan? For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad 

Topic: Cultural Globalization   Host: Dr. Abdul Jalil (Professor of Economics at PIDE) Speaker:  Dr. Shehryar Ahmed Khan  PhD English Literature MA Philosophy Assistant Professor Govt Graduate College Attock.   Cultural globalization is an offshoot of Economic globalization. It is the Westernization of world culture through media and other cultural onslaught. Cultural globalization associates sign exchange value to commodities that results in commodification of all aspects of human life and a decline in values and ethics.  

Webinar Date : Monday, November 08, 2021 at 02:00 PM PST Webinar Moderator: Nadeem Ul Haque, Vice Chancellor, PIDE Webinar Speaker : Yasir Farooq Sheikh, Corporate Head of Sales, Roomy Hotels Private Limited Barrister Mansoor Shah, Senior Vice Chairman, Pakistan Hotels Association, Director Samsons Inn Hotel, MJ Anum Raza, Certified Trainer & HR Consultant, Pearl Continental, Rawalpindi Qasim Jafri, General Manager, Avari International Hotels

Webinar Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021, at 07:00 PM PST Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Speaker: Prof. Mary Mellor, Academic, and Author For Details PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad

Webinar Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021, at 07:00 PM PST Webinar Moderator: Nadeem ul Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Speaker : Saad Hayat Tamman, Member - PM Office Bilal Rao, Member - PM Office

Webinar Zoom Link : https://zoom.us/j/98630231695?pwd=NSthYkxUUUdKUW5qOWF3TnFnVmtlUT09 Webinar Date : Monday, September 27, 2021 at 06:00 PM PST Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Panelists : Faraz Talat, Founder and CEO, Cafe Sol / io - The Space, Islamabad Shumaila Amjad, Part-time Curator & Programs Manager The Second Floor (T2F), Karachi Vicky Zhuang Yi-Yin, Co-founder and Director Olomopolo Media, Lahore

Webinar Date : Friday, September 17, 2021 at 03:00 PM PST Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Speaker : Mr. Hashim J. Bakht, Finance Minister, Govt. of Punjab Mr. Zafar Masud, President & CEO, The Bank of Punjab Mr. Salim Raza, Former SBP, Governor & Member Mr. Kazim Saeed, Pakistan Agriculture Coalition Mr. Zafar ul Hassan, Chief Macro, Ministry of Planning Dr. Abedullah, Chief of Research, PIDE Mr. Sayem Ali, Chief Economist, The Bank of Punjab

Webinar Date : Saturday, Sep 11, 2021 at 08:00 PM Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, VC PIDE Webinar Speaker : Former Ambassador, Asif Durrani, Former Ambassador of Pakistan to UAE and Iran, Senior research fellow at IPRI. Brigadier Agha Ahmed Gul, SI(M), Retd, CEO BTTN (Balochistan Think Tank Network). Major General Muhammad Samrez Salik, HI (M), Retd, Former DG ISSRA National Defense University, Pakistan Army. Dr. Mir Sadaat Baloch, President Balochistan Council for Peace and Policy. Jeffery A Stacey, National Security and Development Consultant, Managing Partner, Geopolicity Consulting Group. Webinar Discussant : Fahd Husain, Resident Editor & Columnist for DAWN NEWS. Amer Zafar Durrani, CEO, Reenergia and Paidartawanai.

Webinar Date : Saturday, September 11, 2021 at 06:00 PM Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Speaker : Shehzad Ghias, Comedian & Podcaster Akbar Chaudry, Comedian & Musician Younis B. Azeem, Comedian & Writer Shehrzade Noor, Comedian & Activist Mavra Bari. Comedian, Sociologist & Writer Sehar Tariq. Comedian & Feminist   Comedy is a multi-million dollar industry the world over, with artists selling out arenas such as the TMobile, O2, and MGM Grand on a regular basis – events that hundreds of thousands attend to let loose, share a laugh, and just have a good time. In Pakistan, this phenomenon seems to have slowly been pushed out of the mainstream over the years, particularly after the political turmoil of the 1980s. This webinar aims to initiate a discussion on the potential of comedy as a driver of joy, shaper of culture, and catalyst for socioeconomic prosperity – and to debunk myths surrounding the topic, including the notion that those who engage are fools, misfits, heretics, incompetents, etc. Comedy has historically served crucial purposes, including as a tool for challenging the status quo, for bringing definition to societal values and norms, and for creating a platform upon which a variety of arts – including theater, music, film, and storytelling – can all come together to captivate audiences that can forget about their troubles for a while. How can Pakistan facilitate its comedians, especially in a time of disruptive digital media technologies that are reshaping the landscape?   PIDE Social Media Forums: www.pide.org.pk www.facebook.com/PIDEislamabad www.linkedin.com/PIDEislamabad www.twitter.com/PIDEpk www.instagram.com/PIDEislamabad 

Webinar Date : Friday, September 10, 2021 at 11:00 AM Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Panelists : Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, Former Secretary, ECP Sarwar Bari, Spokesperson, FAFEN Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President/CEO, PILDAT Webinar Speaker : Senator, Shibli Faraz, Minister for Science & Technology, Govt. of Pakistan

Webinar Date : Monday, September 13, 2021 at 06:00 PM Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Speaker : Dr. Tariq H. Cheema, Country Representative, Alight Pakistan Dr. Zahid Majeed, Director Academic Planning, AIOU Mr. Abid Gill, Deputy Chief Advisor, JICA-AQAL Mr. Adnan Ahmed, Vice President Content & Fundraising, Teach the World Foundation

Webinar Date : Friday, Sep 03, 2021 at 11:00 AM Webinar Moderator: Dr. Nadeem-ul-Haque, VC, PIDE Webinar Speaker : Mr. Omer Jawed Ghani, CEO Trioca Ventures

Webinar on "Virtualizing Services In Pakistan" Saturday, July 10, 2021 at 09:00 PM   Speakers:  Faisal Haque, Virtualizing Services by offering Internet for All Khalid Raza, Network options for Universal Ahmed Shahid, Using 5G as last mile optionor Dr Suuhail Chughtai, Deploying Telemedicine in Pakistan lmran Qureshi, Virtual Education in Pakistan

Moderator: Dr Nadeem Ul Haque, VC, PIDE Registration Link: https://forms.gle/DBvj5GzMGDd1TWnf9  Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 07:00 PM (PST) In a significant move, the federal cabinet approved amendments in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Act in the name of central bank autonomy, price stability and accountability. The benefit of central bank independence is well documented in the literature. However, there is a dire need to evaluate several important questions: Why is autonomy so important? Should every institution be autonomous? Is Pakistan is prepared for the complete autonomy of the central bank? Can only SBP manage inflation given the constraints of the supply side and governance? What will be the implications for economic growth? What will be the implications for financial stability? How will the institution be accountable?

Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haque Chair: Abdul Razak Daood, Adviser for Commerce and Investment, Ministry of Commerce, Government of Pakistan Presenter:  Ahmed Waqar Qasim, Research Economist, PIDE Saddam Hussain, Research Economist, PIDE Discussant:  Gohar Ejaz, Patron-in-Chief, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association Khadija Malik Bari Assistant Professor, Institute of Business Administration, Islamabad Aqdas Afzal, Program Director, Social Development & Policy Program, Habib University.   The economic significance of the textile sector in Pakistan is undeniable. The sector contributes around 60% of the export earnings and provides employment opportunities for around 40% of the total labor force. In the textile sector, energy cost is the leading component in terms of conversion cost. Among all the factors that make the textile sector of Pakistan regionally un-competitive, energy tariff is at the core. The recent outshining performance of the textile sector can partially be attributed to the regionally competitive energy tariff (RCET) policy that the government has adopted, since late 2018. The current webinar entails to launch a report prepared by PIDE along with the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) aims to evaluate how the regionally competitive energy Tariff policy is contributing towards getting the textile sector regionally competitive.

Moderator:  Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC PIDE)   Guest Speaker: Ayesha Razzaque (Educationist/Researcher/Consultant)   Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 11:00 AM (PST) "Ayesha Razzaque has a doctorate and a Masters degree in Educational Administration from the College of Education, Michigan State University (MSU). She holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from UET Taxila. Ayesha benefits from 10+ years of experience supporting education development in a variety of social and political contexts, specifically in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She writes, op-ed pieces, regularly for the “The News International” and has been following and writing on the ‘Single National Curriculum’ since 2018."

Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 06:00 PM (PST) Guest Speaker: Mr. Najam Sethi, Author, Journalist, Political Commentator & Chairman of PSL Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haq, Vice Chancellor, PIDE Cricket Leagues have become one of the raging phenomena across the globe. The existing scholarship asserts that such professional leagues provide profitable avenues for players, governments, boards, public and investors. Among the determinants of growth of sports industry are identified public interest, attraction of celebrities, sponsorship of multinational companies and returns on investment. Also, the revenues generated from sports constitute significant determinant of growth of sports industry. Following this tremendous growth in the sports industry on global front, cricket leagues are turning into more institutionalized and professionalized avenues for economic growth. Pakistan Super League (PSL) is the most visible manifestation of interest in the cricket league in the country. Set against the backdrop of burgeoning sports industry (with a focus on cricket leagues) as an avenue for generating growth, economic value and employment in Pakistan, the current webinar entails to: Understand current issues and challenges faced by the sports industry of Pakistan. Explain how sports industry of Pakistan can generate income and employment opportunities in the country. Understand the structure and dynamic of cricket market in Pakistan. Understand PSL as an opportunity for income generation and employment creation in Pakistan.

Monday, March 15, 2021 at 10:00 AM (PST)   Chair: Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation and Chairperson BISP.   Moderator:  Dr. Nadeem Ul Haq, VC, PIDE Speakers: Faisal Rifaq, CEO at Sehat Sahulat Program, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Shabnam Sarfraz, Member Social Sector, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiative, Government of Pakistan Mahmood Khalid, Health Economist, PIDE Sara Rizvi Jafree, Assistant Professor, Forman Christian College, Lahore Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC), Government of Pakistan, in alliance with Provincial Governments initiated a healthcare intervention titled the Sehat Sahulat Program. The objective of this program is to lead a path towards Universal Health Coverage in Pakistan and to grant easier access and free-of-cost healthcare services to the poor. The program, implemented in 91 districts of the country, includes Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jamu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Islamabad Capital Territory, Newly Merged Districts of KP and District Tharparkar, Sindh. The program also claims to cover 9 million families. The program’s horizon is extended to include individuals with disability and transgender persons registered in NADRA and has special CNICs. In the wake of examining the efficacy of this program, PIDE intends to conduct a webinar based on following objectives: To examine the structure and dynamic of Sehat Sahulat Program. To understand the methodology for the identification of the poor and vulnerably poor. To analyze the outreach and efficacy in terms of delivering the deliverables (program’s objectives). To evaluate the impact of program in the light of program’s objectives To specify the challenges of the program and its sustainability with respect to the program’s objectives and results.  

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 07:00 PM (PST) Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC PIDE) Speakers: Ms. Anum Malkani, Director Policy Advisory, Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP) Mr. Asad Beyg, Executive Director/Founder, Media Matters for Democracy & Media Lab Mr. Aftab Alam, Media Law Specialist & Policy Expert Mr. Bilal Gilani, Executive Director, Gallup Pakistan Dr Huma Baqai, Media Analyst &Anchorperson     Media plays a critical role as opinion-shaper in Pakistan. The burgeoning forms of media in the form of electronic, print, and social media, shape national narratives about politics, society and culture. Also, with respect to economy, the role is becoming more pronounced when factors such as commercialization, advertisements, political economy, TRPs, media as an avenue for culture industry, and digitization are brought into light. In the light of this debate, the current webinar is an attempt to: 1. Understand Pakistan’s media economy (Media industry numbers in revenue, Media measurement tools in the past and in present and what media generally covers?) 2. Explain functional regulatory and legal frameworks of media economy in Pakistan. 3. Articulate if Pakistan’s media content, especially televised contents reflective of socio-economic and political realities prevalent in the country, or not. 4. Reflect on the quantity vs. quality control of electronic media in Pakistan. 5. Decipher if there is political economy dimension through which media economy can be understood. 6. Understand the process entailing TRPs of televised contents in Pakistan. 7. Respond to a question, “Is media economy politicized in Pakistan?”

Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 07:00 PM (PST) Speakers: Dr. Azra Raza (Cancer Specialist and Researcher) Dr. Samia Altaf (Public Health Specialist)   Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC PIDE)   Dr. Azra Raza is the Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine and Director of the MDS Center at Columbia University in New York. Previously, she was the Chief of Hematology-Oncology and the Gladys Smith Martin Professor of Oncology at the University of Massachusetts. She is considered an international authority on pre-leukemia (MDS) and acute leukemia. Dr. Raza has published her original clinical and basic research comprising over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts in high profile journals like Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, Molecular Cell, Cancer Research, Blood, Leukemia. She has published >1000 abstracts, dozens of book chapters and edited a book devoted to MDS. She is a sought after speaker in scientific circles and the recipient of numerous awards including The Hope Award in Cancer Research 2012 (shared with the Nobel Laureate Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn). She was named as one of the 100 Women Who Matter by Newsweek Pakistan. Dr. Raza is a member of the Founder Group designing Breakthrough Developments in Science and Technology with President Bill Clinton and met with Vice President Joe Biden to discuss the Cancer Moonshot initiative at his residence at the Naval Observatory in 2015. She is the author of The First Cell: And the human costs of pursuing cancer’s last published by Basic Books, October 2019. In addition to her scientific accomplishments, Dr. Raza is a dedicated reader of Urdu literature, the co-author of GHALIB: Epistemologies of Elegance.

Moderator:  Dr. Durre Nayab, Joint Director PIDE   Book Author:  Dr. Anita M. Weiss   Discussants Raza Rumi, Policy analyst Saba Gul Khattak, Political scientist Yaqoob Khan Bangash, Historian This book identifies and analyzes the impact of the various ways in which local people are responding, taking stands, recapturing their culture, and saying ‘stop’ to the violent extremism that has manifested over the past decade (even longer) in Pakistan. Local groups throughout Pakistan are engaging in various kinds of social negotiations and actions to lessen the violence that has plagued the country since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which let loose a barrage of violence that overflowed into its borders. In so many ways, Pakistanis are engaging in powerful actions that transform how people think about their own society, impeding extremists’ rants while acting on ‘envisioning alternative futures’. This book, hence, focuses on finding the sparks of hope that local people are creating to counter violent extremism based on close ethnographic study of ground realities about not only what people are doing but why they are selecting these kinds of actions, how they are creating alternative narratives about culture and identity, and their vision of a future without violence. This book is also designed to celebrate what is flourishing in cultural performances, music, social activism, and the like in Pakistan today because of people’s commitment to take stands against extremism. Biodata Professor Weiss received her doctorate in sociology from UC Berkeley and is professor of International Studies at the University of Oregon, where she has taught since 1988. She has published extensively on social development, gender issues, and political Islam in Pakistan. She was in Pakistan extensively between 2016-19 conducting interviews for this new book, including six months on a Harry Frank Guggenheim research fellowship; Professor Weiss stepped down after seven years as Head of the Department of International Studies to conduct this research in Pakistan. She is a member of the editorial board of Globalizations as well as a number of journals from Pakistan, has been a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Pakistan National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), and has been Treasurer and Vice President of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies. She was a Distinguished Speaker at the PSDE Annual Meeting in 2002. Endorsements for book Anita Weiss, a prolific expert on Pakistan for some 40 years, has written a “must read” groundbreaking book on the role of religion and the exponential increase of religious extremism in Pakistan. Based on exhaustive on-the-ground research, she provides a unique window on how and why people have responded to and what they have done and are they doing to stop the spread of violent extremism. (JOHN ESPOSITO, Professor, Religion & International Affairs and Islamic Studies, Georgetown University; Founding Director, Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding, Georgetown) Anita Weiss brings to the fore the voices of Pakistanis who have long struggled to counter extremism, intolerance, and terrorism in all its forms. Going beyond the urban areas, she has located people and organizations in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas, where change is happening daily. The diversity of approaches of these change makers is exhilarating: from the non-violence of Bacha Khan to the science focus of the Zoya schools, the stirring and resilient emerging Pashto and Sindhi poetry, to the urban initiatives in art for peace and open spaces. Making a strong case for a hopeful and forward-looking Pakistan, Weiss has certainly opened an important avenue of study. (YAQOOB KHAN BANGASH, Director, Centre for Governance and Policy, ITU, Lahore; Founder, Afkar-e-Taza ThinkFest, Pakistan)

Our particular focus areas will be: 1-Should the use of SROs be only confined to formulation of procedures for implementing a tax law/laws?2-If the SROs allowing tax concessions were eliminated, would it not hurt those sectors which are currently benefiting from them?3-Is it true that SROs are a source of promoting a culture of rent-seeking?4- Can we find any positive results of SROs in any area like promotion of any specific industries, lowering the burden of taxation on social sectors or boosting exports?5-We would love to see examples of useful and harmful SROs? Economic impact of industry wise concessions, specific user concessions? Their impact on domestic industry?6- Does SRO culture make genuine commercial importers and SMEs uncompetitive?   Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haq (VC. PIDE) Panelists/Speakers: Ikram ul Haque (Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Managing partner Huzaima & Ikram)Robina Ather (Chairperson, National Tariff Commission)Manzoor Ahmad (Ex Ambassador, WTO)Gonzalo.J.Varela (Senior Economist, World Bank)Zahir ud Din Dar ( CEO Dartways) .

Webinar on "Pakistan's Trade Potential and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership" Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC PIDE)   Panelist:  Ms Anabel Gonzales Dr. Manzoor Ahmed Dr Hassan Khawar

Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 7:00 PM (PST) Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC PIDE) Panelists: Salim Raza Dr Arshad Zaman Sikander Khan Istaqbal Mehdi Tasneem Noorani This is the first webinar of the series focusing on the issues attached with the ‘State Owner Enterprises’, or the ‘Public Sector Enterprises’.  Management of Public Enterprises (PEs/ SOEs) globally is a challenging task. Large number of countries both developing and developed, have confronted serious issues in improving the performance of their public enterprises. There have been several experiences of bringing these enterprises at par with their “counterparts in private sector”. However, there were more failures than successes. Keeping in view the low level of operational efficiency and magnitude of complexities Prime Minister of Britain Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s promoted a program to privatize. Subsequently, during the next few decades privatization policy was adopted by large number of countries. Some of them have been successful in privatizing substantial part of their public enterprise sector. Perhaps the greatest success was in East Europe where large number of PEs were successfully privatized. Privatization policy was also adopted by number of West European and Afro-Asian countries but here the results were mixed. Continued Importance of PEs: In the recent years it has been noted that despite all the privatization public enterprise sector continue to be substantially large. The “Economist” of January 11th, 2014 included an expose on the role and size of public sector on the global scene including the OECD countries. It stated” Taxpayers might think that the best family sliver has already been sold, but plenty is still in cupboard. State Owned Enterprises in OECD countries are worth around €2 trillion” However, it was added that if minority stakes in companies dealing with public sector utilities and other assets such as buildings, land and sub-soil resources are taken into account public enterprises in rich economies are worth €35 trillion across the OECD countries. Similar share of public sector role is noted in other countries. It was, therefore, concluded by the Economist “All of which points out to a huge opportunity for governments to sell or sweat more assets and by doing so reduce fiscal stress”.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM (PST) Moderator Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC PIDE) Panelists1. Arif Hasan 2. Dr. Naveed Iftikhar 3. Samna Sadaf Khan   Pakistan currently houses some of the largest cities in the world. It has about 20 cities with populations of above a million. Karachi and Lahore are among the twenty-five mega cities in the world. This rapid urbanization is accompanied by congestion, pollution, mobility issues, shortage of housing and other utilities and sprawl. Pakistan also has 40 percent of its urban population living inslums. There is clear shortage of urban public spaces, libraries, office and commercial spaces, and sustainable urban transportation. Our cities are not inclusive either. People living in slums, and street hawkers face a constant threat of eviction. Urban planning in Pakistan has not kept pace with the changes brought about by rapid urbanisation. Pakistani cities lack the vigour and dynamism of amodern, productive, competitive cities. Future of the countries are in the cities hence they should be better managed. In this webinar, we will learn from speakers how cities can do it right and how we can improve our current cities. Points to Ponder• What will be the needs of a future city and anticipating challenges of the future?• With rising urban population and more challenges ahead, how cities will provide equity toall?• How future of the mobility will look like?• Streets provides vibrance to the city economy, with rise of e-commerce and delivery service,how the landscape will evolve eventually.• Some cities around the world are taking matters into their own hands, circumventingregional and federal government for better and effective legislation, generate their ownfunds and future strategies. What can we learn from these cities?

Tuesday, January 19, 2020 at 7:00 PM (PST)   Moderator:  Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC PIDE)   Panelists1. Nadeem Khurshid2. Dr. Nausheen H. Anwar3. Dr. Murtaza Haider All major cities in Pakistan are in the process of reviewing and updating their master plans. Our cities spend resources and time developing masterplans to lock themselves and their cities into a predetermined path of growth and lifestyles. When life does not adjust to these preordained plans for their life, cities and their residents end up in years of strife with encroachments happeninginvolving lawsuits and law enforcement. Cities try to grow and modernize but planners go to the extent of destroying buildings with court injunctions only because they are a couple of feet taller or longer than allowed by stringent regulations. Yet the push for master-planning continues across Pakistan hoping to keep cities frozen for long periods of time from 15-30 years. Having seen a boomafter the second world war, master plans are increasingly seen as a thing of the past. Reasons for this disillusionment are many:Points to Ponder• Master plans are forward-looking, laying the building foundations of a city for the coming twenty years. However, they rely on the present as well as past data to project future demand for infrastructure and public utilities. Little do the planners realize that theseprojections are often faulty.• In Pakistan, master-planning seems to be an inside job between planners and builders who know them. Public participation in the planning process is often perfunctory or non-existent. These plans, therefore, are never owned by the community nor do planners recognize the needs of the people.• Master plans are often based on unrealistic assumptions about the proposed economic potential of the area as well as the requirements of the population.• Master plans are static in nature, made at one point in time by a select few which makes them irrelevant fast and it’s the city dwellers who end up having to face all the ills of that planning.• There is little flexibility built in to evolve the plan and move the city forward. They are often not updated on time, leaving room for vested interests to intervene and change rules in their favor.• Master plans seem to dictate how markets should develop leaving no room for them to find their own level. It is thanks to master planning that we see a shortage in several areas in our cities.

Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque, VC PIDE   Speaker:  Dr. Shandana Khan Mohmand, Book Author   About the Author: Her work in this area focuses on questions of representation, accountability, and responsiveness, and takes a political economy approach to the analysis of local government and service provision in the Western Balkans, South Asia, and Africa.    

Wednesday, January 13, 2020 at 8:00 PM (PST) Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC, PIDE) Speaker: Prof. James A. Robinson   By the authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail, based on decades of research, this powerful new big-picture framework explains how some countries develop towards and provide liberty while others fall to despotism, anarchy or asphyxiating norms - and explains how liberty can thrive despite new threats.        

Tuesday, January 12, 2020 at 7:00 PM (PST) Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque, VC PIDE Speaker: Prof. Abhijit V. Banerjee   About Speaker: Professor Banerjee is the recipient of the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, awarded jointly with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." Banerjee is a past president of the Bureau for the Research in the Economic Analysis of Development, a Research Associate of the NBER, a CEPR research fellow, International Research Fellow of the Kiel Institute, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society and has been a Guggenheim Fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. Professor Banerjee received the Infosys Prize 2009 in Social Sciences and Economics. In 2011, he was named one of Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 global thinkers. His areas of research are development economics and economic theory. Banerjee is a member of J-PAL's Executive Committee and previously served as co-chair of J-PAL’s Education Sector.

Monday, January 11, 2020 at 7:00 PM (PST) Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (VC. PIDE) Speaker: Prof. Cass R. Sunstein About Speaker:  Cass R. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. In 2018, he received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities. In 2020, the World Health Organization appointed him as Chair of its technical advisory group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and after that, he served on the President's Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and on the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Board. Mr. Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has advised officials at the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank, and many nations on issues of law and public policy. He serves as an adviser to the Behavioral Insights Team in the United Kingdom.    

Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haq (VC. PIDE) Panelists/SpeakersZarar Khuhro (Senior Journalist and Hots of Zara Hut Kay)Amer Zafar Durrani (President, Reenergia)Zaigham Khan (Executive Director, Civic Action Resources)Omar Quraishi (Journalist and CEO, Positive Media Communications)Usman Raza Jolaha (Founder/President, Volunteer Force Pakistan)   There is talk of a Grand National Dialog in Pakistan. In the past, such initiatives have led to APCs that have mainly tried to strengthen political cartels. Reform for changing the way we do business of politics and policy is conveniently never in the agenda. We at PIDE are proposing a Grand National (intellectual) dialog on reform to parallel and possibly lead the possible GND with ideas. PIDE questions to our intellectuals will be:1. Is democracy working as it should?2. Can the system be improved through reform? What would you suggest!3. Can the clash of institutions be avoided through reform?4.Parliament virtually becomes irrelevant after elections! Attendance rates are low and legislative efforts very limited. Debates on bills infrequent. Even the budget is not debated adequately. Competence of parliamentarians to take on complex legislative issues too remains in question.5. Democrats don’t want local government. Can the constitution be democratic w/o local government? MNAs, MPAs are running after development funds and involved in local admin.6.The executive thrives in extreme centralization. All regulatory agencies PSEs universities are not granted autonomy.7.Judiciary often wants to play the role of the executive while commercial and other disputes wait for decades to be sorted out. Precedents clearly are not adhered to and the speed of justice is very slow.8. 1 election every 5 years enables a government to establish absolute rule leaving opposition and others frantic for a role.9. Dynastic politics or the control of the constituencies by families has almost developed “rotten boroughs”. What sort of electoral reform can bring in more electoral competition? There are many issues for intellectuals to take up. Theses should be written on these issues to light our way to a better system. The usual binaries— civil military and presidential vs parliamentary- prevent the focus from being placed on improving our current system. We would like to spotlight the failings of our current system that derives from colonialism. Can we reform it?  

Monday, December 28, 2020 at 07:00 PM (PST) Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haq (VC. PIDE) Panelists/SpeakersMr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob (President PILDAT)Dr. Adnan Rasool (Assistant Professor Political Science- University of Tennessee-Martin )Ms. Jamila Aslam (Advocate Supreme Court) , Ms. Nasim Zehra (Journalist)   There is talk of a Grand National Dialog in Pakistan. In the past, such initiatives have led to APCs that have mainly tried to strengthen political cartels. Reform for changing the way we do business of politics and policy is conveniently never in the agenda. We at PIDE are proposing a Grand National (intellectual) dialog on reform to parallel and possibly lead the possible GND with ideas. PIDE questions to our intellectuals will be:1. Is democracy working as it should?2. Can the system be improved through reform? What would you suggest!3. Can the clash of institutions be avoided through reform?4.Parliament virtually becomes irrelevant after elections! Attendance rates are low and legislative efforts very limited. Debates on bills infrequent. Even the budget is not debated adequately. Competence of parliamentarians to take on complex legislative issues too remains in question.5. Democrats don’t want local government. Can the constitution be democratic w/o local government? MNAs, MPAs are running after development funds and involved in local admin.6.The executive thrives in extreme centralization. All regulatory agencies PSEs universities are not granted autonomy.7.Judiciary often wants to play the role of the executive while commercial and other disputes wait for decades to be sorted out. Precedents clearly are not adhered to and the speed of justice is very slow.8. 1 election every 5 years enables a government to establish absolute rule leaving opposition and others frantic for a role.9. Dynastic politics or the control of the constituencies by families has almost developed “rotten boroughs”. What sort of electoral reform can bring in more electoral competition? There are many issues for intellectuals to take up. Theses should be written on these issues to light our way to a better system. The usual binaries— civil military and presidential vs parliamentary- prevent the focus from being placed on improving our current system. We would like to spotlight the failings of our current system that derives from colonialism. Can we reform it?

Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haq (VC. PIDE) Panelists/Speakers Mr. Asad Rahim (Adjunct Faculty - School of Law )Mr. Raza Rumi (Policy Analyst)Ms. Arifa Noor (Journalist), Mr.Farooq Tirmizi (Author-Profit) Mr. Moeed Pirzada (Senior Journalist, Analyst) Mr. Farooq Tirmzi (Author - Profit)     Description: We at PIDE are proposing a Grand National (intellectual) dialog on reform to parallel and possibly lead the possible GND with ideas. There is talk of a Grand National Dialog in Pakistan. In the past, such initiatives have led to APCs that have mainly tried to strengthen political cartels. Reform for changing the way we do business of politics and policy is conveniently never in the agenda. PIDE questions to our intellectuals will be:1. Is democracy working as it should?2. Can the system be improved through reform? What would you suggest!3. Can the clash of institutions be avoided through reform?4.Parliament virtually becomes irrelevant after elections! Attendance rates are low and legislative efforts very limited. Debates on bills infrequent. Even the budget is not debated adequately. Competence of parliamentarians to take on complex legislative issues too remains in question.5. Democrats don’t want local government. Can the constitution be democratic w/o local government? MNAs, MPAs are running after development funds and involved in local admin.6.The executive thrives in extreme centralization. All regulatory agencies PSEs universities are not granted autonomy.7.Judiciary often wants to play the role of the executive while commercial and other disputes wait for decades to be sorted out. Precedents clearly are not adhered to and the speed of justice is very slow.8. 1 election every 5 years enables a government to establish absolute rule leaving opposition and others frantic for a role.9. Dynastic politics or the control of the constituencies by families has almost developed “rotten boroughs”. What sort of electoral reform can bring in more electoral competition? There are many issues for intellectuals to take up. Theses should be written on these issues to light our way to a better system. The usual binaries— civil military and presidential vs parliamentary- prevent the focus from being placed on improving our current system. We would like to spotlight the failings of our current system that derives from colonialism. Can we reform it?

Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haq (VC. PIDE) Panelists/Speakers Ms. Najma Pirzada (Managing Editor-Global Village Space Publications )Mr. Fahd Hussain (Journalist/Resident Editor Dawn )Dr.Erum Haider (Assistant Professor Political Science and Environmental Studies College of Wooster OH)Ms. Huzaima Bukhari (Advocate High Court and Visiting Faculty at LUMS)   Description:  There is talk of a Grand National Dialog in Pakistan. In the past, such initiatives have led to APCs that have mainly tried to strengthen political cartels. Reform for changing the way we do business of politics and policy is conveniently never in the agenda. We at PIDE are proposing a Grand National (intellectual) dialog on reform to parallel and possibly lead the possible GND with ideas. PIDE questions to our intellectuals will be:1. Is democracy working as it should?2. Can the system be improved through reform? What would you suggest!3. Can the clash of institutions be avoided through reform?4.Parliament virtually becomes irrelevant after elections! Attendance rates are low and legislative efforts very limited. Debates on bills infrequent. Even the budget is not debated adequately. Competence of parliamentarians to take on complex legislative issues too remains in question.5. Democrats don’t want local government. Can the constitution be democratic w/o local government? MNAs, MPAs are running after development funds and involved in local admin.6.The executive thrives in extreme centralization. All regulatory agencies PSEs universities are not granted autonomy.7.Judiciary often wants to play the role of the executive while commercial and other disputes wait for decades to be sorted out. Precedents clearly are not adhered to and the speed of justice is very slow.8. 1 election every 5 years enables a government to establish absolute rule leaving opposition and others frantic for a role.9. Dynastic politics or the control of the constituencies by families has almost developed “rotten boroughs”. What sort of electoral reform can bring in more electoral competition? There are many issues for intellectuals to take up. Theses should be written on these issues to light our way to a better system. The usual binaries— civil military and presidential vs parliamentary- prevent the focus from being placed on improving our current system. We would like to spotlight the failings of our current system that derives from colonialism. Can we reform it?

Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haq (VC. PIDE) Panelists/Speakers:Mosharraf Zaidi (Senior Fellow-Tabadlab)Osama Siddique (Associate Fellow at IDEAS and the Executive Director of Law & Policy Research Network (LPRN))Amber Darr (Barrister, Advocate Supreme Court, Senior Research Fellow-UCL, Lecturer Coventry Law School)Usman Raza Jolaha, Founder/President, Volunteer Force Pakistan   There is talk of a Grand National Dialog in Pakistan. In the past, such initiatives have led to APCs that have mainly tried to strengthen political cartels. Reform for changing the way we do business of politics and policy is conveniently never in the agenda. We at PIDE are proposing a Grand National (intellectual) dialog on reform to parallel and possibly lead the possible GND with ideas. PIDE questions to our intellectuals will be:1. Is democracy working as it should?2. Can the system be improved through reform? What would you suggest!3. Can the clash of institutions be avoided through reform?4.Parliament virtually becomes irrelevant after elections! Attendance rates are low and legislative efforts very limited. Debates on bills infrequent. Even the budget is not debated adequately. Competence of parliamentarians to take on complex legislative issues too remains in question.5. Democrats don’t want local government. Can the constitution be democratic w/o local government? MNAs, MPAs are running after development funds and involved in local admin.6.The executive thrives in extreme centralization. All regulatory agencies PSEs universities are not granted autonomy.7.Judiciary often wants to play the role of the executive while commercial and other disputes wait for decades to be sorted out. Precedents clearly are not adhered to and the speed of justice is very slow.8. 1 election every 5 years enables a government to establish absolute rule leaving opposition and others frantic for a role.9. Dynastic politics or the control of the constituencies by families has almost developed “rotten boroughs”. What sort of electoral reform can bring in more electoral competition? There are many issues for intellectuals to take up. Theses should be written on these issues to light our way to a better system. The usual binaries— civil military and presidential vs parliamentary- prevent the focus from being placed on improving our current system. We would like to spotlight the failings of our current system that derives from colonialism. Can we reform it?  

Key Note Speaker: Riaz Riazuddin Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul HaqueKnowledge Brief Presenters: Abdul Jalil and Hafsa Hina   Riaz Riazuddin is a former Deputy Governor of State Bank of Pakistan. He served as Acting Governor very briefly in 2017. He also worked as Chief Economic Adviser and Director of Research Department of SBP. He is the founding editor of the SBP Working Paper Series. He also co-authored the Financial Sector Assessment Reports of SBP.Earlier, he has served as an Assistant Professor/Research Economist at the Applied Economics Research Centre, University of Karachi.He is currently a Member of the Audit Oversight Board, and a Senior Partner at Inculcate – a small IT venture that recently introduced Math Practice Worksheets for the iOS platform. The external sector plays a vital role in the long-run pattern of any country's macro economy-especially in developing countries. The absence of an external sector can put developing countries in the vicious circle of developing status. While the presence of it advocates for the assessment, “how good we are doing compared to the competing economies”. The exchange rate parity is considered as a reflection of this relative performance. Therefore, the understanding of history and exchange rate management is very vital. Therefore, the discussion on the overvalued exchange rate and the undervalued exchange rate is one of the heated topics in Asia countries.In this backdrop, this webinar will be an attempt to serve three essential objectives:First, a brief history of exchange rate management in PakistanSecond, to assess the exchange rate performance and its impact on the economic activities of Pakistan.Third, what is the way forward keeping the present scenario of the economy of Pakistan in view.

About AuthorDr. Khalid Malik, Founder and Co-chair (alongwith Prof. Jean Paul Fitoussi) of the Global Sustainability Forum based in Rome, Italy. He also serves as Special Advisor, International Development Law Organization.He is a former Director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office from June 2011 till 31 August 2014. He has held a variety of senior management and substantive positions in the United Nations. He served as UN Resident Coordinator in China (2003–2010), Director, UNDP Evaluation Office (1997-2003) and Chair, UN Evaluation Group. Earlier he was UN Representative in Uzbekistan.He has been active on UN reform and has worked closely with development partners and UN intergovernmental bodies. In 2009, Mr. Malik was one of ten “champions” - and the only foreigner - to be honored for their contributions to the protection of the environment in China.Mr. Malik has lectured widely on global issues and development economics in the US, UK, Pakistan and China. He was the Simon Professional Fellow at Manchester University.He has written widely on a range of topics.His book "Why China Has Grown So Fast for So Long" was published in 2012 by Oxford University Press and translated into Chinese in 2019 by Renmin University Press.Earlier, he co-edited “Capacity for Development: New Solutions to Old Problems” (2002), and Lessons Learned in Crisis and Post Conflict Situations (2002).Before joining the UN, Mr. Malik conducted research at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (1975) and taught at Pembroke College, Oxford (1974-75). He studied economics and statistics at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Essex and Punjab. About Book:The book sets out to explain the sustained economic growth of China in the past 30 years. The author argues that though the trend of growth based on official statistics looks unbelievable and has been questioned by researchers all along, the ways economic growth was examined were narrow and tended to lead to doomsday forecasts. The author intends to offer an alternative explanation: the Chinese success has been a result of multidimensional changes aiming for transformation.Chapter 1 is an overview of China's economic performance in the last 30 years. This chapter offers basic information on output, poverty reduction and health indicators. It also describes the structural changes brought by the emergence of private‐sector businesses, growing productivity since the 1980s, growing importance of trade and changing population structure. Chapter 2 produces a short account of China's reform history. The description, though brief, covers a lot of ground, offering a concise description of what China has gone through in both economic and social perspectives.Chapter 3 reviews the studies on China's growth by summarizing the attempts in existing literature to explain and forecast the growth in China. These are researches done by economists based on neoclassical economic theories: factors of production, including factor accumulation and factor reallocation and total factor productivity (TFP). However, to unpack TFP, there needs to be new theories. There have been exploratory works in this direction, such as those on the role of clearly defined property rights and market liberalization. However, all the existing theories suggested that China would fail soon, at the time of the study, as it could not satisfy the conditions required for sustained growth.Chapter 4 produces an analytical framework of transformation. The author argues that economic theories that focus on one or two dimensions of the production functions would inevitably lead to doomsday forecasts. However, the Chinese reform is not only in one dimension, it is a reform on many fronts, and each of them contributed to the success of long‐term growth in China. The transformation framework includes ownership, capacities and policies. It is in essence an attempt to shift away from the focus on economic growth. As pointed out by the author, development is not about narrowly defined output growth and productivity growth. It should be about comprehensive changes in various domains of the society. What China has been trying to achieve is transformation in many such domains.Chapter 5 applies the transformation framework to China and argues that ownership, capacities and policies were the forces behind the 50‐fold growth in income per capita since the late 1970s. Under each category of forces, there are a number of propositions and then the experience of China has been discussed accordingly. There are all together 13 propositions. The author tries to argue that they all contribute to the transformation of China.Chapter 6 is about the future prospects. In this chapter, the author makes forecasts and points out challenges for the future of China's transformation. These challenges include the environment suitability, the building up of societal capabilities, the reduction of disparities, the reinforcing of social cohesion, demographic changes and a range of macroeconomic policies.The author takes on a daunting task in trying to make sense of the whole picture of China's reform. As he rightly points out, a tunnel view of China's economic performance has so far been unsuccessful in predicting its long‐lasting growth. China's reform needs to be understood multidimensionally. The book provides a large amount of information on policy changes in many sectors of the society.The book would be a good read for students in development studies and China studies, in particular for those who have not been following the Chinese reforms closely. At the same time, for researchers in China, this book can also be a useful reference on policy areas that they may not be familiar with.The book has several weaknesses.First, the first chapter of the book presents China's growth story in relation to the rest of the world. The author compares China, India and ASEAN countries and argues that China consistently outperforms the rest of the world. However, it would be interesting to see how China has performed in the post‐war period in contrast to East Asian countries which started to grow earlier than China and also experienced a relatively long period of rapid growth.This book does a good job of criticizing existing accounts of why China has grown so fast for so long. However, the author does not provide a convincing argument, let alone data, that his own explanation can do better. There is also a lack of coherence between the two parts of the book. The first part takes it for granted that it is important to understand why China's economic growth has been so impressive, but the second part argues that development is about transformation rather than growth, and that a focus on growth is misguided.The application of transformation theory to China is largely based on the author's narrative, and there is not much empirical evidence showing the actual relationship between transformation and growth. Based on the last three chapters of this book, it would be more suitable to consider the theme of the book to be how transformation has taken place and how transformation matters in China, rather than on how transformation helps to explain growth, as there is little attempt to draw a causal link between the two.Finally, the book is mostly written based on the data before the international economic crisis happened. Many of the projections the author used also come from pre‐crises periods, except for the reference to some general comments. The environment for growth now is quite different from the earlier period. China's economic growth is destined to slow down and the Chinese government's planning on making major changes in a number of policy areas. It would be interesting to see whether the transformation theory can provide a reliable forecast to the future.   Discussant:Saeed Afridi, International Relations, Security & Energy Scholar with a focus on Central Asia