Fawad regrets ‘decades wasted’ to muzzle extremism; congratulates Pakistan-origin economist

Asim Ijaz Khwaja was part of PM Imran's economic revival team but resigned in protest

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday congratulated Pakistan-origin economist Asim Khwaja for his appointment as faculty director of Harvard's Kennedy school and regretted the economist's resignation from the country's Economic Advisory Council (EAC) in September last year.

The information minister lamented that Khwaja would have been part of the country's economic advisory team had Pakistan "not wasted two decades and muzzled extremism".

Congs ⁦⁦@aikhwaja⁩ for appointment as faculty director of the Center for International Development at Harvard Kennedy School, had we not wasted two decades and muzzled extremism you would have been part of Pak economic Revival team.. https://t.co/6iCPq9Me8Z

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 6, 2019

In 2018, Khawaja was included in the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) constituted by Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government. However, he resigned in protest after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government decided to withdraw the nomination of renowned economist Dr Atif Mian due to opposition from religious groups including Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).



On April 5, The Harvard Kennedy School named Pakistan-origin economist Asim Ijaz Khwaja as the faculty director of the school’s Centre for International Development (CID).

Khwaja is also the Sumitomo-Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, Co-Director of Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD), and co-founder of the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP).

He will continue to hold those positions and assume charge of as director CID on July 1, 2019.