Economic Advisory Council (Pakistan) should not be confused with National Economic Council (Pakistan).
Economic Advisory Council is a non-constitutional and independent body formed to give economic advice to the Government of Pakistan, specifically the Prime Minister.
In August 2021, the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan reconstituted the council with the following members formed by the Prime Minister on Ministry of Finance recommendations for the Finance division under its Implementations and Economic Reforms Unit:[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
| Chair | Imran Khan (Prime Minister) |
| Secretary | Arshad Saeed Jaffar (Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council/Finance Division) |
| Official Members | Abdul Hafeez Shaikh (Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue) |
| Hammad Azhar (Federal Minister for Economic Affairs) | |
| Asad Umar (Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives) | |
| (Secretary of the Finance Division and Economic Advisory Council) | |
| Tariq Bajwa (Ex-Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)) | |
| Dr. Ishrat Hussain (Adviser to the Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms) | |
| Abdul Razak Dawood (Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission) | |
| Private Sector Members | Dr. Farrukh Iqbal (Dean & Director, Institute of Business Administration (IBA)) |
| Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan (Principal and Dean, School of Social Sciences & Humanities, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)) | |
| Dr. Ijaz Nabi (Professor of Economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences) | |
| Dr. Asad Zaman (Vice Chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE)) | |
| Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri (Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)) | |
| Syed Salim Raza - former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan | |
| Dr Naved Hamid - Professor of Economics at the Lahore School of Economics (LSE) | |
| Syed Salim Raza - former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan | |
| Sakib Sherani - Economist and Journalist, founder of Macro Economic Insights (Pvt) Ltd |
Council was also criticised for the lack of female representation.[11] [12]
Inclusion of renowned economist Atif Mian resulted in a controversy when former Deputy Speaker of Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza's social media team tweeted a racial and religious tweet against Mian, who belongs to Ahmadiyya faith.[13] However, she later apologized after receiving severe backlash.[14] [15] Previously Khan, himself was under backlash for naming Mian as his cabinet's Finance Minister, but he withdraw Mian's name saying he did not know that he belonged to Ahmadiyya community.[16] Initially, PTI has supported its decision on Mian's inclusion in Council.[17] [18] However after days of biased social media criticism from extremist religious groups, senator Faisal Javed Khan announced on 7 September 2018 in a tweet that, "Atif Mian was asked to step down from the Advisory Council and he has agreed. A replacement would be announced later."[19] [20] [21]
On 7 September 2018, Dr Khwaja resigned from the EAC protesting the government's decision to withdraw the nomination of Dr Mian.[22] On 8 September 2018, Dr Rasul became the second EAC member who resigned in protest over Dr Mian's removal.[23] [24]