Founded in 1957. It is a post-graduate research institute, and a public policy think tank located in the vicinity of Islamabad, Pakistan. The institute has a long been a place of scholarship of high-profile and prominent individuals who previously held positions in government, including Benazir Bhutto, Mahbub-ul-Haq, Robert Mundell, Fazal-ur-Rahman, and Shahid Allam. Since the 1990s, its research is devoted to theoretical and empirical research in Development economics in general and on Pakistan-related economic issues in particular.