INTRODUCTION

Dr. Akmal Hussain, founder of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Information Technology University (ITU) and co-chair of the Governing Board of South Asia Centre for Policy Studies, was invited for his book launch of Pakistan, Institutional Instability & Underdevelopment: State, People, and Consciousness on June 19, 2023. Raheem ul Haque, Assistant Professor CPPG, and Nazeef Ishtiaq, Lecturer of Economics, FCC were discussants at the book launch. Hussain commenced his talk with a conceptual elaboration of institutions. Institutions are humanly devised formal and informal rules that enable the orderly conduct of society’s political, social, cultural, and religious spheres. Rules are based on a particular understanding of human cognition, and devised through different agencies to induce certain kinds of human behavior. While the state dominated by the elite formulates formal rules, informal rules arise out of the lived experience of a community over a long period.