For many students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit‑Baltistan and Azad Jammu‑Kashmir, pursuing a premier business degree has meant packing their bags for Karachi or Lahore, often leaving family and support networks far behind. The latest move by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) promises to shift that dynamic, as the university turns its gaze toward the capital’s northern corridor.
On Thursday, IBA’s Vice‑Chancellor Dr M. Saeed Qureshi, accompanied by the Federal Minister for Education and several provincial dignitaries, placed the foundation stone for a new campus in the heart of Islamabad’s Margalla Hills. The ceremony, attended by over a hundred guests, underscored the university’s intention to extend its acclaimed curriculum beyond the coastal metropolis and make it readily accessible to the northern hinterland.
The Islamabad campus will initially host a suite of undergraduate programmes in Business Administration, Accounting and Finance, alongside graduate tracks such as MBA and MPA. State‑of‑the‑art lecture halls, a digital library, and a dedicated incubation centre for student start‑ups are slated for construction, with an anticipated capacity of 2,000 learners once fully operational. According to Dr Qureshi, the campus is designed to mirror the academic rigour and industry linkages that have made IBA Karachi a benchmark for business education in Pakistan.
Education officials anticipate that the new campus will alleviate the financial and social pressures of long‑distance relocation for northern students, while also fostering a talent pool that can drive regional entrepreneurship and corporate growth. By embedding a world‑class business school within reach of these provinces, IBA aims to contribute to the broader national agenda of equitable higher‑education distribution and to curb the outflow of bright minds to foreign institutions. The project is slated for completion in late 2028, with admissions opening for the 2029 academic session.