---

I work at the intersection of AI, state capacity, and development economics at the International Growth Centre at LSE.

My focus is helping governments in low- and middle-income countries make better policy decisions, and over the past decade I have worked with governments in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Zambia.

Presently, I’m building IGC’s AI and data policy practice, where I lead a team of economists and AI engineers delivering projects across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Before this, I spent nearly four years building and running IGC’s Zambia programme, working with the President, Cabinet, the Ministry of Finance, and line ministries to support policy change. This included establishing an embedded data and AI unit within the Ministry of Finance.

I began my policy career as an urban economist at the Blavatnik School of Government, supporting mayors in developing countries to improve service delivery and pursue pro-growth reforms. I have also written regular economic op-eds for major Pakistani newspapers and briefly taught economics at a university in Islamabad, where I was born and raised.

I’m based in London.

(The blog section of the website is currently out of date and will be updated with recent writing shortly.)