19th meeting of Senate of PIDE approves sweeping set of institutional reforms
ISLAMABAD: The 19th Meeting of the Senate of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) approved a sweeping set of institutional reforms at a sitting held in Islamabad. The meeting was chaired by Prof Ahsan Iqbal (NI), Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives and Chancellor, PIDE.
In his opening remarks, Ahsan Iqbal spoke of Pakistan’s development trajectory and the need for a holistic, integrated policy framework — bringing together the public sector, private sector, and academia — to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth. He placed particular emphasis on the role of evidence-based policy in building a sustainable export surplus, underscoring that research must be results-oriented and directly useful to policymakers if it is to move the needle on Pakistan’s trade performance.
The Chancellor also welcomed two members joining the Senate for the first time — Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, elected from the faculty, and Ms Sima Kamil, former Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
The Senate received a detailed Progress Review and Compliance Report for 2025-26, presented through a documentary narrated by Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Nadeem Javaid (SI). Reflecting on the year, Dr Javaid recalled: “When I took on this responsibility, I had one simple belief — that PIDE must matter to Pakistan and its people.” He described the year’s work not as incremental activity but as a strategic reset built on relevance, national purpose, and doing more with the resources available — framed around the Institute’s Institutional Development Strategy 2025–2030 and its central idea of REACH: ensuring that research reaches policy, knowledge reaches government, learning reaches the marketplace, and Pakistani ideas reach wider national and international audiences.
Members were informed of the establishment of eight new research centres, a newly digitised three-year rolling research work plan now tracking the Institute’s research assignments in real time, a threefold increase in academic enrolment, and an 89 percent graduate employment rate within one year of graduation. The Senate warmly endorsed this performance as reflective of PIDE’s growing national and regional stature.
In closing, the Chancellor directed that members from Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan be included in the Senate going forward, extending representation on the Institute’s apex governing body to these regions. The Vice Chancellor, in turn, called on provincial representatives present at the meeting to deepen their engagement with PIDE on policy research, inviting each province to work with the Institute on demand-driven research aligned to its own priorities.
The Chancellor thanked the Vice Chancellor and the Senate for their guidance and support over the past year, and expressed confidence in PIDE’s continued role in delivering evidence-based policy solutions to help Pakistan achieve its ambitious export growth targets in the years ahead.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026