Madiha Afzal is a visiting fellow in the Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. Her research lies at the intersection of development, security, and political economy, with a focus on Pakistan. She previously worked as an assistant professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Afzal is the author of Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State, published by the Brookings Institution Press in 2018 (the book was also published in South Asia and Afghanistan by Penguin India). Afzal has also published in Public Choice, and is the author of a USIP special report on Education and Attitudes in Pakistan, as well as several book chapters. She has written for Pakistani and international publications including Dawn, The Cairo Review, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, Newsweek, etc. She is regularly interviewed by media outlets, including BBC, NPR, and VOA. In addition, she consults for various organizations, including the World Bank, USAID, DFID, and IFPRI. For her writing on education in Pakistan, she was named to Lo Spazio della Politica's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2013. Afzal received her Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 2008, specializing in Development Economics and Political Economy.
Madiha Afzal is a visiting fellow in the Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. Her research lies at the intersection of development, security, and political economy, with a focus on Pakistan. She previously worked as an assistant professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Afzal is the author of Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State, published by the Brookings Institution Press in 2018 (the book was also published in South Asia and Afghanistan by Penguin India). Afzal has also published in Public Choice, and is the author of a USIP special report on Education and Attitudes in Pakistan, as well as several book chapters. She has written for Pakistani and international publications including Dawn, The Cairo Review, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, Newsweek, etc. She is regularly interviewed by media outlets, including BBC, NPR, and VOA. In addition, she consults for various organizations, including the World Bank, USAID, DFID, and IFPRI. For her writing on education in Pakistan, she was named to Lo Spazio della Politica’s list of Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2013. Afzal received her Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 2008, specializing in Development Economics and Political Economy.
"[Yet the PTI has the political capital to make a stand. It enjoys widespread support, credibility among Islamists, and unprecedented backing from the country’s most powerful institution, the army.] This was the time to push back."
Certain traits of [Imran Khan]—his lack of desire to conduct politics as usual, his stubbornness—will mean that should his relationship with the military sour or cool off, he might falter more quickly than politicians in the past, and more badly. But once in power, he could also adapt.
"[Pakistan's judiciary is an] all too willing pawn in the military's hands...I also think that it is in broad agreement with the military in its stance on Pakistan's politics."
100 days of Imran Khan
Girls' education research and policy symposium
No one, other than Sharif loyalists, doubts that [he] was corrupt...The question is whether he would be facing this had he appeased the military rather than taken it on, and the answer is probably not.
