Two Pak economists quit advisory council

Islamabad, September 8 

London-based economist Imran Rasul has become the second member of the new Pakistan government’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to resign in protest against the exclusion of noted US-based academic Atif R Mian who was told to step down from the body due to a backlash over his Ahmadi faith.

Rasul quit after another EAC member, Asim Ijaz Khwaja, professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, announced his decision to resign from the advisory council following Mian’s exclusion.

“With a heavy heart, I have resigned from the EAC this morning,” Rasul, a professor of economics at University College, London, said in a tweet on Saturday. The economist said he “profoundly disagrees” with the circumstances in which Mian was asked to resign from the council. — PTI