The Higher Education Commission has appointed NUST Rector Dr. Muhammad Zahid Latif as the National Chair on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, entrusting Pakistan’s leading science and technology university with spearheading a strategic national initiative across two of the world’s most consequential technological domains. The appointment marks a significant step in Pakistan’s effort to bring structured national governance to its artificial intelligence and robotics ecosystem at a time when both fields are reshaping industries, economies, and defence capabilities globally.
Based at the NUST Islamabad campus, the National Chair, together with a panel of experts, will serve as a premier national platform for policy direction, strategic alignment, governance structures, and comprehensive assessment of the national artificial intelligence and robotics ecosystem, particularly in relation to HEC-supported national centres including the National Centre of Artificial Intelligence and the National Centre of Robotics and Automation. The mandate is substantive rather than ceremonial, with the National Chair expected to provide the kind of coordinated strategic oversight that has been missing from Pakistan’s approach to these fields, where the National Centre of Artificial Intelligence and National Centre of Robotics and Automation have been operating largely in parallel without a single authoritative body providing coherent direction across both domains.
The appointment reflects the confidence reposed by HEC in the Rector’s visionary leadership and underscores the university’s growing stature as a leading hub of academic excellence, cutting-edge research, and technological innovation in Pakistan. NUST has been the institutional home of the National Centre of Artificial Intelligence since its establishment, which has developed over 221 artificial intelligence products and designs spanning smart cities, precision agriculture, healthcare, media monitoring, manufacturing, and the judiciary, while also training artificial intelligence professionals and supporting Pakistan’s digital export ambitions. The addition of a formal National Chair role extends NUST’s national responsibility from hosting these centres to actively shaping the policy and governance environment in which they operate.
Expressing appreciation for the appointment, Dr. Zahid Latif said the initiative is not only a recognition of NUST’s academic and research contributions but also a collective national opportunity to build long-term strategic coherence in emerging technological fields that will define Pakistan’s future competitiveness. For a country that has articulated ambitious artificial intelligence goals, including training one million people in artificial intelligence, acquiring graphics processing unit infrastructure, and raising software exports to $15 billion, having a dedicated national chair tasked with aligning policy, governance, and institutional strategy across the artificial intelligence and robotics ecosystem is a structural improvement that gives those ambitions a more credible institutional foundation from which to be realised.
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