Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

Akhtar did his bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honours in 1997 from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.[2] He got his master's degree in economics in 1999 from Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.[3][4] Akhtar completed his PhD in 2008 from SOAS, University of London at the South Asia Institute, where his thesis was titled The Overdeveloping State: The Politics of Common Sense in Pakistan, 1971-2007.[5]

Akhtar is serving as associate professor of political economy at Quaid-i-Azam University's National Institute of Pakistan Studies,[6] and has previously taught at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.[7]

In November 2007, he was arrested in Lahore with seventy other civil society activists for participating in an anti-government meeting held at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan during the Pakistani state of emergency, 2007.[8][9] Akhtar was a coordinator of the People's Rights Movement, a left-wing confederation of working-class movements in Pakistan. In February 2010, PRM merged with the National Workers Party and the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party to form the Workers Party Pakistan.[10] In 2012, the Workers Party Pakistan merged with other Left-wing parties to form the Awami Workers Party.[11] Akhtar is a strong supporter of Okara's peasant movement.[12]

Akhtar also writes a weekly column for the Dawn newspaper,[13] he also wrote in Monthly Review,[14] New Internationalist,[15] Tanqeed,[16] and The Straits Times.[17] He has published many research articles as a researcher and academic.[18][19] He has published a book named "The Politics of Common Sense" which describes the evolution of structure of power in Pakistan over the past four decades.[20][21]