Prof. Dr. Zahoor Ul Haq (TI)

Prof. Dr. Zahoor Ul Haq, a recipient of the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, is a distinguished academic leader, higher education reformer, and policy advisor with over three decades of impactful service in teaching, research, and governance. He has served as Vice Chancellor of three leading universities, successfully steering institutional growth, strategic planning, accreditation, and quality assurance, while fostering international linkages and promoting innovation-driven education. He has published in high-impact journals and worked for global and public research organizations in Canada, the UAE, and Pakistan.

He currently serves as Vice Chancellor of the University of Rasul, Punjab, Pakistan, since May 2026. Prior to this, he served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Gujrat, Pakistan (January 2025 – May 2026), and completed a landmark tenure as Vice Chancellor of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) (December 2020 – January 2025), where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Business & Economics (July 2024 – January 2025) and earlier as Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics (November 2017 – December 2020) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts (February 2011 – February 2013).

At AWKUM, he took charge as Vice Chancellor in December 2020 amid severe financial and administrative turmoil that had left the University unable to pay full salaries to its employees. Prof. Haq led from the front, launching the Learning Management System (LMS) during COVID-19 to enable 30,000 students to learn online, developing 45 demand-driven academic programs, growing student enrolment from 8,500 to 14,000 within two years, and doubling the University's income from Rs. 746 million to Rs. 1,544 million — turning a deficit of Rs. 98 million (2019-20) into a surplus of Rs. 145 million (2020-21).

Under his leadership, AWKUM was consistently ranked in the top three countrywide and first in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as per the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and among the top 20 universities in Pakistan (351-400 band across Asia) per the QS World University Rankings: Asia. He established the University Research and Innovation Fund (RIF), raising research productivity by 40% and research citations by 45%, and in 2022 AWKUM produced the highest number of research articles in KP, surpassing all other universities — contributing to a citation impact score of 96.2 and research strength score of 99.8 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024. Three University patents developed during his tenure are in the process of commercialization.

He established the "Students Welfare & Endowment Fund," financially assisting 300 students and enabling 230 orphans, minorities, and students with major disabilities to receive free undergraduate education — a policy that continues at the University. In recognition of his performance, the Cabinet, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, awarded him the first-ever performance grant to a Vice Chancellor in its 75-year history (Rs. 50 million, 2022), and he also received the Academic Excellence Award from the Governor of Punjab.

He founded the Pakhtunkhwa Economic Policy Research Institute (PEPRI) at AWKUM — the first policy institute of its kind in KP — with the vision "to promote and generate research for informed decision-making, enabling and thriving prosperity and development." The institute developed the first Social Accounting Matrix for the KP economy and has attracted major government-funded projects, including Rs. 3,750 million under a PSDP-funded project and Rs. 990 million under an ADP project.

Earlier in his career, Prof. Haq served as Lecturer and Associate Professor at the University of Agriculture, Peshawar (2000-2011) and as Scientific Officer at the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (1995-2000). He holds a PhD in Economics and Business from the University of Guelph, Canada, completed a post-doctoral fellowship in International Business at the Gatton School of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky, and has undergone leadership training at the Lahore University of Management Sciences and the Civil Services Academy, Lahore.