POLICY TOOLS TO GO
Q&A: Pakistani Fulbright Scholars
With the start of a new academic year, more
than one hundred new students arrived at the
Harris School this fall. Among those that
traveled the farthest are five Fulbright scholars
from Pakistan, all working towards an MPP
degree. HarrisView recently spoke with the
students to learn more about them and their
future plans.
Q: Why did you choose the Harris School? And why an MPP?
A: Mustafa Mahmood: I wanted a program
that was very quantitative. I’m good at math
and, coming with an undergraduate economics
degree, I feel it’s very important. This School
specifically and University is known for its
economics and mathematics background. Some
of the faculty have the Nobel Prize and very
good research. The faculty, the program, the
reputation of the School, that all led me…to
come to the University of Chicago.
Ali Anwerzada: An MPP provides you the
flexibility of looking at issues with…[an added]
practical perspective. How I looked at it, I do
get a chance to take economic courses, which
will fulfill my appetite for economics, and at the
same time I have a chance to take courses which
are designed by people who have had significant
non-academic experience where studies are
drawn from real life.
Q: What do you hope to get out of the program?
A: Bilal Kidwai: Learning the way you
approach real life problems and figuring out
how you’re actually going to solve them through
public policy. How do you affect outcomes?
What considerations do you take? How do you
do that with real data?
Q: How do you hope your MPP will influence your career?
A: Ali Anwerzada: I have a business degree and have
been working in corporate and investment banks. My last experience was at Acumen Fund
Pakistan…and I want to work for a similar
organization—where you can use your investment
banking tools and your public policy
degree to support the work of microfinance
institutions. And there’s a lot I feel we could do
in Pakistan in terms of microfinance. It hasn’t
really kicked off.
Navin Ali: It’s not just a degree. For me the
entire Fulbright experience is rich and encompassing
in many aspects. You just don’t learn
from books. You learn from the culture, from
exchange of ideas, interaction. The U.S. is very
diverse and rich in that sense, so you take a lot
back home. It’s a whole experience as well, apart
from just the degree.
Q: The Fulbright Program requires returning
to Pakistan for two years. What has inspired
you to help your country?
A: Kidwai: For me, it’s really…because the
existing way we [Pakistan]…develop public policy
is not very systematic. There is no groundwork…
being done to actually formulate a policy. There
is very little data, no systems are in place to
capture data, and most decisions are just one
person deciding largely according to what he
feels at that time is necessary. So I was hoping
that when I go back I’ll have some way or
methodology of tackling the problem.
Salma Khalid: My reason is mostly emotional.
Somebody has to take responsibility for fixing a
lot of things that are wrong. We [researchers]
work at the ground level—villages, people that
are really poor. It’s heartbreaking, going in there
and coming out a week or two weeks later
saying, “We’re going to publish your report, but
that’s about all we can do.” There should be a
link between research and policy and I’m hoping
I’ll be a position where I can do a bit of both.
Elizabeth Jenkins
| 
