On February 19, 2026, a significant policy dialogue at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) emphasized the urgent need for evidence-based reforms in girls' education and minority inclusion in Pakistan. Mudassar Riaz Malik, Secretary of the School Education Department in Punjab, highlighted the importance of grounding decisions in research, stating, "This policy dialogue is extremely important for us. We need to ground our decisions in evidence and move firmly toward evidence-based policymaking, not policy-based evidence-making." The event, organized by the Data and Research in Education – Research Consortium (DARE-RC), brought together policymakers and researchers to discuss actionable strategies to combat dropout rates among girls and improve educational experiences for children from religious minority backgrounds. Presentations from experts like Dr. Zainab Latif and Dr. Ibtasam Thakur pointed to systemic barriers affecting these groups, reinforcing the call for coordinated reforms to enhance educational equity in Pakistan.