The Institute of Business Administration has cancelled a lecture by renowned economist Atif Mian, the university said on Thursday. “Dr Atif R. Mian’s lecture ‘Why has economic growth fallen behind in Pakistan?’ scheduled on November 2, 2020 has been cancelled,” said IBA in a tweet. “Inconvenience is regretted.” The university, however, didn’t disclose the reason behind cancellation of the economist’s lecture. “If it’s related to [the] Atif Mian event, I regret to comment on it at the moment,” said the varsity’s spokesperson. Atif, however, said his lecture was cancelled because of “threats from extremists.” “Sorry to report that my zoom economics seminar at IBA Karachi has been cancelled due to threats that the university administration was facing from extremists,” said Atif R Mian in a tweet. Soon after coming to power in 2018, the PTI government had appointed Atif R Mian as one of the members of its Economic Advisory Council. His appointment was, however, opposed by the right wing groups such as Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and Lal Masjid’s Shuhada Foundation. The government had defended his appointment at first, saying that the economist is being targeted for his Ahmadiyya faith. He was, however, told to step down by the government from his position a few days later.
