Past Conferences

• Pakistan’s Institutions: We Know They Matter, But How Can They Work Better?
  January 10, 2017

  Pakistan’s public sector institutions suffer from many shortcomings, complicating efforts to craft and implement sustainable public policies and to resolve the country’s broader development and stability challenges. These institutional shortcomings also enable non-state actors and the military to step in and fill roles that civilian institutions are unwilling or unable to serve. At the same time, encouraging reforms and success stories are in place that highlight the possibilities for turning institutions around for the better. This conference examines Pakistan’s civilian institutions and the governance reform efforts that aim to strengthen them.

• Pakistan’s Interminable Energy Crisis: Is There Any Way Out?
  July 23rd, 2014

  Pakistan is plagued by a deep energy crisis—one with troubling consequences for its fragile economy and volatile security situation. Islamabad, in fact, has described energy as a greater challenge than terrorism. Energy is also a major public concern. Recent polling finds that more than 90 percent of Pakistanis are worried about energy shortages.

• Pakistan’s Accelerating Urbanization
  November 6th, 2013

  Pakistan’s future will largely be written in its cities. Today about a third of Pakistan’s population is urban-based, but that figure is expected to increase to nearly 50 percent within a dozen years. Recent data shows that Karachi’s population grew by 80 percent between 2000 and 2010—the largest such increase of any city in the world. Pakistan’s accelerating urbanization presents huge challenges but simultaneously offers the country a way out of its present multiple dilemmas.

• Pakistan-India Trade: What Needs to be Done? What Does it Matter?
  April 23, 2012

  The Pakistan government announced its intention to grant Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to India, replicating a decision made earlier in New Delhi and potentially laying the groundwork for greatly expanded trade between the two South Asian neighbors. While fundamental disagreements remain unresolved, Islamabad’s MFN decision suggests that it is prepared to deepen trade ties. Optimists assert that increased trade and the ensuing socioeconomic benefits can build constituencies in both countries for more cooperative bilateral relations, thereby also opening the door to progress on core political and security issues.

• Conference on US Civilian Aid to Pakistan
  February 2, 2012

  Conference on US Civilian Aid to Pakistan-held at London School of Economics (Report sponsored by FFFP) Has civilian assistance to Pakistan over the past three decades assisted with development and improvements in living standards? Or has well-intended aid had a negative impact on Pakistan? The publication of the Wilson Center report Aiding Without Abetting: Making U.S. Civilian Assistance to Pakistan Work for Both Sides provided the London School of Economics with an opportunity to discuss these and related issues. This February 2, 2012, public event in London was co-hosted by the British Pakistan Foundation and LSE’s Asia Research Center.

• Defusing the Bomb: Overcoming Pakistan’s Population Challenge
  June 09 2010

  On June 9, the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, Environmental Change and Security Program, and Comparative Urban Studies Project, along with the Karachi-based Fellowship Fund for Pakistan, hosted a day-long conference to examine both the challenges and opportunities of Pakistan’s demographics, and to discuss how best to tackle the former and maximize the latter.

• Hunger Pains: Pakistan’s Food Insecurity
  June 3, 2009

  On June 3, the Asia Program, with assistance from the Environmental Change and Security Program, the Comparative Urban Studies Project, the Program on Science, Technology, America, and the Global Economy, and the Karachi-based Fellowship Fund for Pakistan, hosted a conference to illustrate the magnitude and manifestations of Pakistan’s food insecurity; to identify its possible causes; and to consider ways forward.

• Running on Empty: Pakistan’s Water Crisis
  Unpacking a potentially devastating crisis, from scarcity to sanitation
  November 20, 2008

  On November 20, the Asia Program, with assistance from the Environmental Change and Security Program and the Comparative Urban Studies Project, and with financial support from the Fellowship Fund for Pakistan, convened a conference to highlight the different facets of Pakistan’s water crisis; to examine the rural and urban dimensions of the crisis; and to consider possible responses.

• Commerce and Competition: A Conference on Pakistani Trade Issues
  June 15, 2007

  Asia Program on June 15 convened a day-long conference on Pakistani trade issues to examine Islamabad’s decision to accelerate its export-driven trade policy. The conference examined questions such as: What range of exports will Pakistan emphasize? How will Pakistan make its exports competitive? How and where will it seek new export markets? And how will Pakistan calibrate trade links with its regional neighbors and the United States.

• Fueling the Future: Meeting Pakistan’s Energy Needs in the 21st Century
  June 23, 2006

  On June 23, the Asia Program hosted a day-long conference to consider Pakistan’s energy needs over the next 25-30 years, and to promote a more informed discussion on how Pakistan might succeed in meeting its energy requirements.

  Pakistan’s economy is growing, and with this growth comes higher energy consumption and stronger pressures on the country’s energy resources. At present, natural gas and oil supply the bulk (80 percent) of Pakistan’s energy needs.

• No Child Left Behind? The Crisis in Pakistan’s Education System
  April 15, 2005

  Pakistan’s education system is regularly cited as one of the most serious impediments preventing Pakistan from achieving its potential. The UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report gives Pakistan the lowest “education index” score of any country outside Africa. Pakistan is one of only 12 countries in the world that spends less than two percent of its GNP on education.

• Islamization and the Pakistani Economy
  January 27, 2004

  As the inaugural event in its expanded Pakistan programming, the Asia Program held a one-day conference on January 27 exploring a course of action being pushed by important political and religious groups in Pakistan: the adoption by that country of an Islamic economy. Efforts to establish an Islamic economy in Pakistan date back nearly to the founding of the country in 1947. Pakistan ‘s first Constituent Assembly adopted the Objectives Resolution, which stipulated that the country’s Muslims should order their lives in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam. This seminal statement of intent was subsequently incorporated into each of Pakistan ‘s three constitutions, and stands today as one of the key documents in the country’s political and constitutional history. Yet repeated efforts over the years to create an Islamic economy in Pakistan failed to establish the institutions, legal structures, and other mechanisms necessary to sustain such an economic system.