Trump Administration 2.0: What to Expect in South Asia?
by: Jinnah Institute
Date: November 15, 2024
Jinnah Institute hosted a policy roundtable on 7th November, 2024, titled ‘Trump Administration 2.0: What to Expect in South Asia?’ in response to the US election outcome the previous day....
Conference and Research reports
Power of Three: Role of Academia, Media & Think Tanks in Security Reform
Date: November 25, 2023
Pakistan’s National Security Policy (2022-2026) provides an improved pathway for implementing safeguards that protect citizens from traditional and emerging threats. It has also broadened the institutional setting within which security...
OPINION
Financing Climate Action
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: August 20, 2023
The global climate crisis has left no country untouched, but it is the developing world that (more…)
Opinion
Pakistan’s Climate Journey in 16 Months
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: August 15, 2023
A small anecdote sums up the cognitive confusion (more…)
OPINION
The Season of Climate Migrants
by: Saif Jamali
Date: September 1, 2022
Human migration is the single most disruptive outcome of climate induced stress, as seen over decades across the world. (more…)
POLICY BRIEF
Climate Brief 2022: Navigating Pakistan’s Climate Crisis
by: Salman Zaidi, Meera Nadeem, Abdulla Wasti & Zahaid Rehman
Date: March 22, 2022
Introduction Existential challenges require concerted action, consensus and policy clarity. So far, on climate stress, Pakistan seems to be (more…)
OPINION
A Fragile Stalemate on the LoC
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: February 24, 2022
In the policy permafrost of Indo-Pak relations, not much is expected to move towards resolution through diplomatic engagement. (more…)
OPINION
Who Will Win the Hindi Heartland?
by: Meera Nadeem & Abdulla Wasti
Date: February 11, 2022
India had once claimed the merit of being the largest democracy in the world, where 900 million voters enable (more…)
OPINION
The pursuit of strategic autonomy
by: Abdulla Wasti
Date: December 23, 2021
The recently held democracy summit ended up being another iteration of a world being divided into binaries. While the summit (more…)
OPINION
The Indo-Pacific shift: a struggle for power
by: Abdulla Wasti
Date: December 10, 2021
The recently held virtual meeting of the Climate Summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping might have initiated some meaningful contact between the two states, but...
OPINION
AFGHANISTAN: WINTER IS COMING
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: November 3, 2021
South Asia faces a perfect storm with the growing risk of an unstable Afghanistan, coupled with divided views in the international community on who must take responsibility for the strategic...
Annual Report (2020-2021)
Date: September 16, 2021
Jinnah Institute is an independent policy research and public advocacy think tank in Pakistan. The Institute advances the causes of: • Democratic institution building and strengthening state capacity for delivery...
OPINION
Preserving Gains: The Fate of Afghan Women
by: Meera Nadeem & Abdulla Wasti
Date: August 14, 2021
As the map of who controls Afghanistan changes by the hour, the most affected on the ground remain women (more…)
Post COVID Futures
Chapter 2: Past the Tipping Point: Why Pakistan’s Low Emitter Argument Won’t Work
by: Rafay Alam
Date: August 4, 2021
July’s flash flood in Islamabad was triggered by a “cloudburst” that swept cars away in high tide (more…)
POLICY BRIEF
South Asia in Transition: Finding Stability in the Third Nuclear Age
by: Sitara Noor
Date: June 11, 2021
Introduction The month of May marked 23 years since Pakistan and India tested their atomic bombs and gatecrashed (more…)
Post COVID Futures
Chapter 1: Pakistan’s Macroeconomy and the Covid-19 Pandemic
by: Dr. Asad Sayeed and Dr. Aqdas Afzal
Date: June 9, 2021
Nothing has had a more deleterious impact on the global economy in about a century since the Great Depression (more…)
OPINION
Recalibrating Priorities
by: Zahaid Rehman
Date: May 8, 2021
With a little over four months left till the US’ self-imposed deadline for withdrawal in Afghanistan, the narrative has shifted (more…)
OPINION
Terms for Peace
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: April 2, 2021
As Pakistan lurches through its worst wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, talk of peace with India fuels (more…)
POLICY BRIEF
Caught in the Crossfire: The Dilemma of Fisherfolk Prisoners
by: Abdulla Wasti, Meera Nadeem and Zahaid Rehman
Date: March 26, 2021
The arrest of fisherfolk of India and Pakistan on the maritime border between the two countries (more…)
OPINION
Of Signals and Compulsions
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 23, 2021
It’s early days yet, but after a period of protracted turbulence, the India-Pakistan relationship seems to be steadying. (more…)
Policy Brief
Reaping a Poor Harvest: Food Security in a Pandemic
by: Fauzia Yazdani & Shirin Gul
Date: March 17, 2021
Among other disruptions taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic was the periodic shortage of food staples in Pakistan over 2020. (more…)
Policy Brief
Asia’s Rise to Economic Prominence: Stakes for South Asia
by: Saad Rajput
Date: January 22, 2021
Asia’s Resurgence Longer term analyses of globalisation demonstrate how historical supply chains have sustained across regions, (more…)
Special Feature
Bracing for the Long-Haul: Hopes and Challenges Defining the Intra-Afghan Talks
by: Abdulla Wasti
Date: December 3, 2020
Introduction As the much-anticipated intra-Afghan talks take place in Doha, (more…)
Policy Brief
Confronting Pakistan’s Climate Reality: Shifting Paradigms
by: Hassaan Sipra
Date: November 30, 2020
Executive Summary Pakistan’s high vulnerability to climate change necessitates an urgent response. (more…)
Opinion
The Eastern Question
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 28, 2020
Part I How do states signal credibility and believability to their allies, adversaries and neutral fence-sitters? Given Pakistan’s recently prepared dossier on India’s terrorist involvement in Pakistan, pausing to consider...
Opinion
RCEP: A ‘Post-Alliance’ World?
by: Zahaid Rehman
Date: November 24, 2020
Whenever regional trading blocs are under discussion, free-market proponents are quick to point out the myriad benefits free-trade zones tend to bring. A windfall of revenue is promised. (more…)
Opinion
Shifting Regional Alliances
by: Zahaid Rehman
Date: November 15, 2020
The recently signed Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) between the US and India (more…)
Opinion
How to Engage America After the Election
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 7, 2020
As the dust settles on a closely contested Presidential election in Washington, many Pakistanis are wondering what kind of engagement they can expect from a superpower in the throes of...
Policy Brief
Broadening Pakistan’s Search for Geopolitical Stability in a Contested Neighborhood
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 30, 2020
As tensions both in and around South Asia rise, this policy brief maps the most salient geopolitical stressors that require Islamabad’s attention as Pakistan looks to rebuild and repair a...
Policy Brief
Tackling Climate Change During a Pandemic
by: Shafqat Kakakhel
Date: August 24, 2020
Introduction The lockdowns prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic have caused massive disruptions in economic and commercial activities all over the world. (more…)
Opinion
Ties with Israel
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: August 24, 2020
Last week’s decision by the UAE and Israel to normalize ties is testament to a fast changing landscape in the Middle East. While Saudi Arabia has put speculation to rest...
Opinion
The Forgotten People
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: August 5, 2020
August 5th 2019 is only one of them, yet it should have marked a watershed in world history, like October 27th 1947 when a despotic Dogra ruler stripped Kashmiris of...
Opinion
Pakistan and the New Great Game
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: July 9, 2020
As the China-India conflict in the Himalayas blows hot and blows cold, Islamabad’s studied reticence has so far only signaled quiet alarm. While both China and India try to de-escalate...
Annual Report (2019-2020)
Date: July 8, 2020
Current geostrategic realities have not only magnified Pakistan's global relevance, but repeatedly headlined the onerous challenges it faces today. A porous border with Afghanistan, the repercussions of proxy jihad, the...
Opinion
After India’s Skirmish with China, Is Pakistan Next?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 1, 2020
The worst border skirmish between India and China in the Himalayas for decades has abated for now, but the potential for crisis still looms large over a nuclear-armed South Asia....
Policy Brief
Leave No One Behind: Including Women in the Afghan Transition
by: Ammara Durrani
Date: June 11, 2020
“Some members of the Taliban delegation were looking at me. A few were taking notes. Some others were just looking elsewhere…Since our side had women delegates, I suggested to them...
Opinion
Managing the Stand-Off
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: June 4, 2020
News of a border stand-off between two restive nuclear neighbours is always worrying. Yet when US President Donald Trump’s offer of mediation between India and China met with a studied...
Policy Brief
Farthest Field: Women and COVID-19
by: Farzana Bari, Sara Malkani
Date: June 1, 2020
Gender and COVID-19 by Dr. Farzana Bari Heralded as the greatest equaliser of our times, the coronavirus pandemic was expected to blur boundaries of class, race, and gender, and become...
Opinion
Ripple Effects of a Changing Oil Market
by: Saad Rajput
Date: May 11, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused some bizarre distortions in markets across the globe. One such aberration occurred on 20th April, when the price of a barrel of WTI crude –...
Opinion
Will Covid-19 Reshape Afghan Peace?
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: May 10, 2020
Pandemics have a way of sharpening existing social trends and political faultlines. As the Covid-19 virus sows its deadly harvest both in Pakistan and South-Central Asia, the prospect of renewed...
Opinion
Democracy and the Pandemic
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 7, 2020
Pakistan still has a long way to go in the fight against Covid-19, with almost 20,000 confirmed cases, and doctors and hospitals facing a harrowing shortage of testing kits and...
Policy Brief
Social Protection and COVID-19
by: Safiya Aftab
Date: May 5, 2020
Introduction As of end April 2020, Pakistan has more than 16,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and over 350 deaths.[i] As this human tragedy unfolds, more material concerns are also being...
Opinion
Labour Interrupted
by: Mariam Bokhari
Date: May 1, 2020
Perhaps no one has featured as prominently in the Prime Ministers frequent addresses to the nation since March as daily wagers. The precarious condition daily wagers find themselves in has...
Policy Brief
Love in the Time of Corona: A Time to Build South Asian Cooperation
by: Nazish Afraz
Date: April 29, 2020
“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and...
Opinion
Dear World, How is the Lockdown?’ Kashmir.
by: Victoria Schofield
Date: April 28, 2020
A year ago I was in the Valley of Kashmir. Although much had changed since my last visit, with new houses under construction, some roads repaired, there was still the...
Opinion
The Future of Global Governance
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: April 21, 2020
As the death toll from Covid-19 mounts, disrupting lives, livelihoods and much of the free market, global leadership is in short supply. This is clear from America’s intention to suspend...
Policy Brief
Parliament and the Pandemic
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: April 20, 2020
Introduction Parliament’s role in managing, scrutinizing and leading Pakistan’s fight against COVID-19 and its potential dangers is critical to coherent outcomes. With the situation in Pakistan still at a stage...
Opinion
Parliament and the Pandemic
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: April 6, 2020
As global coronavirus cases passed the million mark on Thursday, the world struggles to cope with containment and mitigation without any roadmaps for such a pandemic. With the situation in...
Opinion
Will the Pandemic Bring Peace?
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: April 4, 2020
A global pandemic that moves with lightning speed to spread its deadly payload across borders, communities and class, demands a reconsideration at many levels. Even as we struggle to shape...
Policy Brief
India, Pakistan and the Pandemic: Community of Shared Future?
by: Haroon Sharif
Date: March 31, 2020
India, Pakistan and the Pandemic: Community of Shared Future? Abstract Crises are often the crucible for old challenges to be addressed in new ways. The COVID-19 pandemic may just force...
Opinion
Lockdown? Pakistan Not Convinced
by: Mariam Bokhari & Ayesha Mushtaq
Date: March 22, 2020
When a global pandemic burns through a country it first tests both its leadership as well as its national public resolve. In Pakistan much more is being tested, including the...
Opinion
Modi’s Hubris
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: March 17, 2020
Has India finally woken up to the need for SAARC? Or is its latest reincarnation an attempt to reposition Modi as a regional leader? While collaboration is welcome in the...
Opinion
Womansplaining Rights
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 9, 2020
As millennial women join every year now to celebrate their womanhood on 8th March, and to bond in solidarity for defining the rights to their lives and choices, many people in...
Opinion
Three Tsunamis for Pakistan
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 4, 2020
Like many parts of the world, Pakistan is going through a populist moment. A key trait of such campaigns is big-ticket promises of transformational reform in stark contrast to regime-outcomes....
Opinion
The Promise Of 29 February
by: Riaz Mohammad Khan
Date: March 2, 2020
The 29 February Agreement may well set in motion a process bringing peace to Afghanistan and an end to America’s longest war. The agreement marks a formal reversal of the...
Opinion
The Struggle Continues
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: February 5, 2020
As dawn breaks across the besieged valley of Kashmir this February 5, millions of Kashmiris will wake up to six months of virtual lockdown. A blood-stained arc of diminishing freedoms...
Situationer
150 Days – The Kashmir Lockdown
by: Muhammad Amir Khan
Date: January 3, 2020
More than 150 days have passed since the inhabitants of Indian occupied Kashmir were stripped of normalcy in their daily lives. Life remains grim and the mood somber in the...
Opinion
Human Rights in an Imperfect Democracy
by: Tahira Abdullah
Date: December 10, 2019
“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the...
Opinion
Corridor of Peace?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 24, 2019
Writing about India’s role in the India-Pakistan conflict a decade ago, South Asia expert Stephen Cohen put forward the following proposition: “As for India, it is both part of the...
Opinion
Partition Redux
by: Syed Hassan Akbar
Date: November 18, 2019
It has taken a tale of two cities to remind us of how deeply the legacy of partition continues to afflict the conscience of India and Pakistan. In the past...
Opinion
Tolerance as a Political Value
by: Radha Shah
Date: November 16, 2019
November 16th marks the 23rd UN International Day for Tolerance, an occasion commemorating coexistence and diversity among communities across the world. In the quarter century where tolerance has been commemorated...
Opinion
Beyond Kartarpur
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: November 13, 2019
In the midst of the worsening stand-off between Pakistan and India, the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor has been a remarkable feat. The historical event may not break the ice,...
Hate Tracker Report | Jan – Sept 2019
Date: October 31, 2019
Jinnah Institute has collated data on radicalization and violent extremism since 2010. The data trends identified through this exercise have been published in JI’s Extremism Watch reports and Hate Tracker,...
Policy Brief
Integrating Transgender Persons: Towards Inclusive Policymaking
by: Mariam Ali Bokhari & Muhammad Amir Khan
Date: October 28, 2019
Giving transgender persons a fuller measure of their citizenship rights in Pakistan has been a staple objective of political party manifestos since the last three elections. Several legislative and policy...
Report
CPEC 2.0 | The Promise and the Peril
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: October 9, 2019
Today, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the largest bilateral investment projects underway anywhere in the world. Early harvest projects worth $18.9 billion have already been allocated...
Opinion
CPEC 2.0: The Promise and the Peril
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: September 2, 2019
As Pakistan navigates changing power equations in the world, and the crisis in Kashmir, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) stands out as the one possible silver lining for Pakistan....
Situation Kashmir
Date: August 15, 2019
On August 5, 2019, the second BJP led government of Narendra Modi annexed Jammu and Kashmir by abrogating Article 370 and bifurcating the state into two separate Union Territories. This...
Situationer
Kashmir on the Front Lines
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: August 5, 2019
What Has India Done? After days of troop surges, arrests, speculation and denials, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah introduced a presidential order and a bill in Parliament on August...
Opinion
The Path Forward
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: July 18, 2019
The headway made in the recent talks between India and Pakistan on the Kartarpur corridor marks a way forward towards normalization of relations between the two nations. The two sides...
Opinion
Budget 2020: Popular Misconceptions & Economic Reality
by: Saad Rajput
Date: June 25, 2019
Debates about Pakistan’s economic stewardship have become a core feature of public discourse since the PTI government assumed power last year. Two mini-budgets and the removal of a finance minister...
Policy Brief
Budget 2019-2020: Inequality and Public Policy
by: Safiya Aftab
Date: June 18, 2019
Inequality is believed to drive conflict and destabilize society, and thus indirectly retard economic growth. On a more fundamental level, though, inequality undermines the principles of social justice and preservation...
Opinion
Budget Blues
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: June 12, 2019
In what is being billed as Pakistan’s most austerity laden budget in decades, new taxation and fiscal retrenchment measures are set to herald a difficult era of economic contraction. The...
Opinion
At Modernity’s Door
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: June 11, 2019
Shortly before Eid, an android application for moon sighting was made available on Google Play. A calendar that can be accessed through Pakistan’s first official ‘moon-sighting’ website now indicates scientifically...
Who’s Afraid of Mr. Jinnah?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 29, 2019
India’s election is over, and the BJP has won in a landslide that is nothing short of historic. The Opposition has been delivered a crushing defeat, turfed out of its...
Opinion
Saffron Sweep, Again
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: May 25, 2019
For the first time since Indira Gandhi, an incumbent prime minister has returned to Delhi with an even greater majority after completing a five year term. Narendra Modi, who was...
Opinion
Childhood Deserves Better
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: May 24, 2019
Another gruesome murder and rape of a minor has caused wide public outcry across Pakistan. Pakistan’s civil society, as well as the Prime Minister and military leadership have condemned the...
Opinion
Pathways to Détente
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: May 8, 2019
The fifth phase of voting in India’s behemoth election is over. The winner in New Delhi will shape, in part, the future of arguably the most tense bilateral relationship in...
Policy Brief
War to Lawfare – Spotlighting the India-Pakistan Conflict
by: Professor Sikander Ahmed Shah and Professor Uzair J. Kayani
Date: May 6, 2019
Lawfare, or the use of legal fora and devices for military and diplomatic advantage, has become a critical component of South Asia’s dynamic conflict landscape. In the context of the...
Opinion
Leveraging CPEC; Investing in Human Capital
by: Nazish Afraz
Date: April 17, 2019
As Pakistan navigates a burgeoning deficit crisis, there is renewed focus on leveraging CPEC for growth. With government-to-government CPEC infrastructure upgrades well underway, all sights are set on business cooperation...
Opinion
Committing to Equality for Street Children
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: April 12, 2019
Madeeha Ansari April 12 is a day for the invisible. As the International Day for Street Children, it is a time to extend recognition to young people who are too...
Policies
Jinnah Institute’s Policy Dialogue on Cultural Pluralism
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: April 8, 2019
On 24/02/17, Pakistan as a society must question the contemporary manifestations of ethnic discrimination, religious intolerance, and extremism by resuscitating the pluralistic vision of its inception. This was the main...
Opinion
From Journalism to Jingoism
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: April 2, 2019
Meera Nadeem Prospects for dialogue between Pakistan and India now appear bleak as the two nuclear armed neighbours faceoff in what is perhaps the worst diplomatic bilateral stalemate since 1971....
Opinion
Where Do India and Pakistan Go From Here
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 28, 2019
For a region that until a month ago was on a collision course for war, India’s decision to boycott Pakistan Day celebrations at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi...
Opinion
After the Crisis
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 14, 2019
Although the 2019 India-Pakistan standoff may have passed its immediate intensity, it is clear that the entire episode has left a slew of new worries for policymakers all over the...
Opinion
The Fight for Our Rights
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 8, 2019
Today’s Pakistan has gone through several important transformations, most notable of which is the country’s default inclination towards some form of democracy, even if its current avatar manifests as illiberal....
Democracy and Inclusion
Date: February 20, 2019
Inclusion in democracies is a challenge across the world, especially for those with weak state capacity for social service delivery and where the establishment of democracy itself has followed a...
Opinion
The Fault in Our Stars
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: January 30, 2019
With the PTI’s saddle-adjustment over and a debt crisis (temporarily) averted, it may be worth refocusing attention onto the guardrails of Pakistan’s democracy. Will the next four years of PTI...
Opinion
Timeline of US Taliban Talks
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: January 25, 2019
With discussions around Afghan reconciliation entering a critical phase, it’s worth looking at what is happening in Qatar and beyond. This short piece analyzes the push for a settlement and...
Quarterly Monitoring Brief
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief October 2018 – December 2018
Date: January 24, 2019
Hostile statements from India and Pakistan continued in the last quarter of 2018 as ceasefire violations continued at the Line of Control and bilateral relations remained tense. Perhaps the most...
Opinion
Child Marriage and the Law
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: January 17, 2019
Pakistan’s children are its future. Yet not only is this generation put to work in homes, fields and factories, they are the silent objects of abuse and violence in ways...
Policy Brief
A Constitutional History of Water in Pakistan
by: Ahmad Rafay Alam
Date: January 7, 2019
What exactly is water law? The answer is elusive. Water itself is fascinating. It adopts the shape of the vessel it occupies. Different vessels, different shapes. And for each shape,...
Opinion
Mobility and Politics
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 30, 2018
It’s been an uneasy year for democracy in Pakistan. If there is a takeaway, it is that politics at the grassroots level continues to be an unequal game despite the...
Opinion
A Bridge Too Far
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 19, 2018
The momentary goodwill rendered by Pakistan’s offer to India to open the Kartarpur Corridor has evaporated, reaffirming some of the bilateral relationship’s worst and more deeply ingrained pathologies. These include...
Opinion
The Connectivity Dream
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: December 17, 2018
The Kartarpur corridor contains the seeds of more inclusive, people-oriented development in Pakistan and across South Asia The Kartarpur corridor connecting two Sikh shrines divided by Partition has posed...
Opinion
A Chequered Decade
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: December 10, 2018
On Human Rights Day, Jinnah Institute looks at rights legislation from the past decade of democratic rule in Pakistan through an interactive timeline of rights legislation, and an accompanying opinion...
Publications
Jinnah Institute’s Policy Dialogue on Social Media and Populist Nationalism
Date: December 3, 2018
Political systems across the world have undergone a wave of populism, and are hard pressed to balance majoritarian political demands against fundamental human rights. Nowhere is this contest more visible...
Opinion
The State and the Street
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 2, 2018
Much has been said and written about the government’s handling of violent extremism. Recent events have made two things expressly apparent. The first is the growing capacity of religious zealots...
Quarterly Monitoring Brief
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief July 2018 – September 2018
Date: November 5, 2018
Despite a hopeful start to the quarter, Indo-Pak relations ended on a hostile note after India cancelled a scheduled Foreign Ministers’ meeting at the sidelines of the UNGA and engaged...
Annual Report (2017-2018)
Date: November 5, 2018
Jinnah Institute is an independent policy research and public advocacy think tank in Pakistan. Each year, Jinnah Institute produces an annual report highlighting our collective work and the impact...
Quarterly Monitoring Brief
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief April 2018 – June 2018
Date: September 18, 2018
India and Pakistan seemed to be making progress in their bilateral relations as tensions abated at the end of March when both countries released a coordinated statement reiterating their decision...
Quarterly Monitoring Brief
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief January 2018 – March 2018
Date: September 17, 2018
Bilateral relations between India and Pakistan remained tense throughout most of the first quarter of 2018. The year began with news of a meeting between the Pakistani and Indian National...
Publications
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief January 2018 – March 2018
Date: September 17, 2018
Bilateral relations between India and Pakistan remained tense throughout most of the first quarter of 2018. The year began with news of a meeting between the Pakistani and Indian National...
Opinion
Pak-US Terms of Engagement
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 12, 2018
The region is once again in the spotlight. The only good news is that during the US Secretary of State’s visit to Islamabad, the two sides endorsed cooperation despite the...
Opinion
The Anatomy of a Taliban Ceasefire
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 4, 2018
After months of regional stalemate, two events in June offer a potential roadmap for achieving a working peace. The first was the Taliban’s decision to accept Afghan President Ghani’s offer...
Policy Brief
Terrorism in the Age of New Media
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: June 20, 2018
In an age of connectivity and increasingly porous national borders, threats to global security transcend limitations imposed by geography and conventional application of force. The realm of new media provides...
Publications
Policy Brief | Terrorism in the Age of New Media
Date: June 20, 2018
In an age of connectivity and increasingly porous national borders, threats to global security transcend limitations imposed by geography and conventional application of force. The realm of new media provides...
Opinion
How to Fix the Economy
by: Ehsan Malik
Date: June 14, 2018
The biggest challenge for an incoming government two months from now will be how to stabilise the economy. Foreign exchange cover, currently representing two months of imports, would have been...
Opinion
Who to Listen to on the Indus Treaty?
by: Ahmad Rafay Alam
Date: June 7, 2018
The World Bank earlier this week requested Pakistan to accept India’s referral to a Neutral Expert questions involving the design of the Kishanganga and Ratle dams. This is the latest twist...
Opinion
A Legacy of Deficits
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 21, 2018
The odds that the PML-N was going to be remembered for having contributed meaningfully to Pakistan’s foreign policy and reputation-building abroad were never high to begin with. But Nawaz Sharif’s...
Opinion
Muzzling the Press
by: Aisha Fayyazi Sarwari
Date: May 10, 2018
Pakistan, as a democracy - albeit a faltering stumbling, tossing one – should allow the airing of public opinion. In fact it ought to do more than just allow it....
Publications
Prospects for detente
Date: April 11, 2018
The Foreign Minister’s decision to criticize the National Security Advisor for meeting the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan in Islamabad last week was unfortunate and poorly timed. It was unfortunate because...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | Pak-Afghan Trade Relations: Looking Ahead
Date: March 19, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Opinion
Women Were Never Silent
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 8, 2018
Every country’s story is incomplete without its women’s voices. Pakistan is no different. On International Women’s Day we should always take stock of the good, the bad, and of course...
Publications
In Her Own Words
Date: March 8, 2018
"In her own words," a collection of essays on the raging issues on women's rights in Pakistan. Please find the full text of the PDF here.
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | Conflict in Afghanistan: Behind the Pak-US Disconnect
Date: February 19, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | Enemy at the Gates: The TTP in Afghanistan
Date: January 30, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Opinion
Indus Water Treaty: Don’t Lose the Game
by: Ahmad Rafay Alam
Date: January 25, 2018
India and Pakistan have reached an impasse over issues of the Kishenganga and Ratle power plants. Their last meeting in the “good offices” of the World Bank last August and...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | From the Trenches to the Table: Waging Peace in Afghanistan
Date: January 23, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | The Haqqani Question
Date: January 18, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Opinion
Say No to Sexual Abuse
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: January 16, 2018
As the news cycle inevitably shifts to politics, violent extremism, the national debt, we all know that little Zainab’s story will fade away into a niche issue until the next...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | Daesh in Afghanistan
Date: January 15, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | The Woman Question: Gains at Risk
Date: January 9, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | Beijing as Broker
Date: January 8, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | Understanding Afghanistan’s Poppy Economy
Date: January 5, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Afghanistan Essays
The Afghanistan Essays | A History of Errors
Date: January 4, 2018
This 2018 short-essay series by the Jinnah Institute (JI) reflects a range of Pakistani thought leadership on Afghanistan and it’s complex history with Islamabad. With the region in the current...
Publications
Policy Brief | Not Losing Advantage over India’s Catch-22 on the Indus Treaty
Date: November 15, 2017
India, Pakistan and the World Bank have reached an impasse over issues of the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower power plants. Both countries met at Secretary level talks held in the...
Opinion
An Existential Threat
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: November 14, 2017
Half of Pakistan is enveloped in a nasty layer of toxic smog, as we speak. The problem is that smog is now an expected seasonal phenomenon rather than an anomaly....
Policy Brief
Not Losing Advantage over India’s Catch-22 on the Indus Treaty
by: Ahmad Rafay Alam
Date: October 17, 2017
India, Pakistan and the World Bank have reached an impasse over issues of the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower power plants. Both countries met at Secretary level talks held in the...
Opinion
No Country for Doves
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: October 11, 2017
In a recent report “Are India-Pakistan peace talks worth a damn?” strategic expert Ashley Tellis questioned the utility of sustained dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad. Diplomatic engagement, Tellis argued, was...
Opinion
High Drama: Retrogressive fictions and Pakistani soaps
by: Fifi Haroon
Date: October 9, 2017
Soaps across the world survive on the echo effect of familiar stereotypes. This is not a phenomenon simply native to Pakistan – Indian soaps are wrapped in Kanjeevaram saris and...
Publications
Report | Climate Change
Date: October 5, 2017
‘You can partition land, but you cannot partition the monsoons, aquifers, the Himalayas or consequences of climate change’ The Task Force on Climate Change was established by the conveners of...
Conference and Research reports
Climate Change
Date: October 5, 2017
‘You can partition land, but you cannot partition the monsoons, aquifers, the Himalayas or consequences of climate change’ The Task Force on Climate Change was established by the conveners of...
Publications
Report | New Media and Alternative Narratives
Date: October 3, 2017
New media is fast reshaping the contours of how South Asians understand and interact with the state, their societies and with each other. With high internet penetration, growing youth demographics...
Conference and Research reports
New Media and Alternative Narratives
Date: October 3, 2017
New media is fast reshaping the contours of how South Asians understand and interact with the state, their societies and with each other. With high internet penetration, growing youth demographics...
Opinion
Women in the House
by: Marvi Sirmed
Date: September 29, 2017
Greater representation of women in parliament has been a longstanding demand of the women's movement in Pakistan. In 2002, this demand was partially met when 17 per cent of seats...
Opinion
Inglorious Empire: Getting it Wrong in Afghanistan
by: Fahd Humayun & Syed Hassan Akbar
Date: September 15, 2017
When Soviet Foreign Minister Edvard Shevardnadze visited Kabul and Islamabad in 1989 to discuss a peaceful transition from the Afghan war, the militants he sought to meet refused to give...
Opinion
Endangered at Home: Domestic Violence and Provincial Legislation
by: Maliha Zia
Date: September 13, 2017
The schism between Pakistan’s legislation and social realities is perhaps best reflected by domestic violence. It would be reasonable to assume that the enactment of legislation against domestic violence in...
Opinion
The Right to Public Space
by: Sadia Khatri
Date: September 7, 2017
My 13 year old sister and I play a game when we commute in Karachi. I count the number of men I see in public spaces, and she counts women...
Opinion
Women in Politics: A Long Road Home
by: Aisha Sarwari
Date: August 21, 2017
When a woman in Pakistan enters politics it is as though she has consciously decided to walk onto a minefield. Despite women parliamentarians enacting affirmative pro-women legislation and leading their...
Opinion
Revolutionizing Business: Women in Entrepreneurship
by: Sadaffe Abid and Babar Pal
Date: August 17, 2017
More and more women are beginning to jump on to the entrepreneurial bandwagon. In the words of Melinda Gates, “when we invest in women and girls, we are investing in...
Publications
SEVEN TAKES AT 70
Date: August 14, 2017
National milestones can be read as bends in the road or as turning points with the capacity to transform prospective pathways. On the eve of Pakistan’s 70th Independence Day, Jinnah...
Opinion
Women in the TTP: Recruiting Across the Gender Divide
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: August 10, 2017
Women in the TTP: Recruiting Across the Gender Divide In the course of carrying out its anti-state insurgency, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has damaged or destroyed over 1,000 schools in...
Publications
Chaophraya Essays | India-Pakistan Trade
Date: August 2, 2017
The ‘Chaophraya Essays’ is a series of essays on bilateral challenges to the normalization of India-Pakistan relations. The series is a culmination of ideas and thoughts exchanged at the Chaophraya Dialogue...
Opinion
War Machine
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 22, 2017
What does it take to win a $23 billion-a-year war? With DoD on the brink of recommitting up to 3,900 more American soldiers to the Afghan battlefield, and a possible surge...
Opinion
Between the Devil & the Deep State
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: June 4, 2017
There’s no shortage of irony in the fact that Prime Minister Sharif’s diplomatic snub at the Arab-Islamic-American summit this month coincided with a decidedly rough patch in Pak-Iran relations. While...
Opinion
Bad Choices
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: May 22, 2017
President Trump is finally set to address his country’s longest running war with a ‘new’ policy for Afghanistan. With a troop increase in the mix and a visibly more muscular...
Opinion
How not to talk with India
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: May 6, 2017
Talking to India is just as important as how not to talk. Starting from the premise that constructive dialogue is the first step towards untangling a history of vexed relations...
Opinion
Silencing Kashmir
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: May 4, 2017
India’s blanket ban on 22 social media websites in Jammu and Kashmir has brought to fore the agency of social media in the latest struggle for rights in the disputed...
Opinion
The Rise of Vigilantism
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: April 27, 2017
Ten days and three acts of vigilantism – the murder of Mashal Khan in Mardan, three burqa clad sisters gunning down a man accused of blasphemy in Sialkot, and Shehbaz...
Opinion
From Moscow, with love
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 11, 2017
As Islamabad grapples with the uncertainties of a new Trump administration, a recent timeline of Russian advances to Pakistan is not inconsequential. In 2016 both sides reaching a price accord...
Publications
Indo-Pak 2017: Past the Red Noise
Date: January 27, 2017
Early in the New Year, Jinnah Institute asked a panel of five senior foreign policy experts to outline their expectations from the India-Pakistan relationship in 2017, and to signpost what...
Policy Brief
A Comparative Analysis of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: January 18, 2017
Despite uncertainty and questions over implementation and investigation mechanisms, the Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (2016) became operational just days after it was passed. The first case of cybercrime...
Opinion
Curtain to the East
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: January 12, 2017
If there is to be a regional policy takeaway from 2016, it is that New Delhi’s apathy for a rapprochement with Islamabad has only served to veer the bilateral relationship...
Opinion
Smoke and Mirrors
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 22, 2016
As Pakistan looks to draw a line under 2016, the scar tissue from this year’s security miscarriages is unlikely to heal overnight. The success of Islamabad’s national security turnarounds, old...
Opinion
Moving out of Foggy Bottom
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 6, 2016
As Hillary Clinton moves into the Oval, the question in Islamabad is whether a fresh administration will bring with it the promise of a Pak-US reset. Given the PML-N’s growing incapacity at...
Opinion
The Fragility of Nuclear Stability in South Asia
by: Dr. Rabia Akhtar
Date: November 1, 2016
To state the obvious, strategic stability in South Asia is fragile. While India and Pakistan have satisfactorily achieved the technical requirements for ensuring strategic stability by institutionalizing their nuclear command...
Publications
Second Opinion – The Uri Aftermath: Policy Options for Pakistan in a Changing Security Environment
Date: October 28, 2016
As Pakistan navigates new bends in a changing regional environment, tensions with India have both raised threat perceptions and stalled efforts to normalise relations. It is in the context of...
Opinion
Our Brand is Crisis
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: October 6, 2016
At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the chances of escalation to war were assessed to be ‘between 1 in 3 and even’. A decade and a half since...
Conference and Research reports
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief April 2014 – June 2014
Date: September 11, 2016
This monitoring brief recaps significant developments in Indo-Pak relations between April 2014 and June 2014, including statements, visits, and policy initiatives. It is part of a series of monitoring briefs...
Opinion
Advantage Taliban
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 1, 2016
The war in Afghanistan is showing little sign of a seasonal let-up. As a successful Taliban campaign quashes hopes for a quick and easy settlement, the jury is still out...
Policy Brief
Reforming the Tribal Areas of Pakistan
by: Saad Rasool
Date: August 31, 2016
The demand for extending democracy to the tribal areas of Pakistan is not a new one. Often conflated with terrorism and border-fragility in international news, the Tribal Areas of Pakistan...
Opinion
Taxing the Poor
by: Ali Khizar
Date: August 30, 2016
There is a worm at the heart of the Pakistan government’s strategy on enhancing tax revenue. The tax to GDP ratio in Pakistan continues to remain abysmally low and while...
Annual Report (2015-2016)
Date: August 10, 2016
Pakistan’s interrupted encounters with democracy and diminished public input in governance have arrested the growth of institutions and rendered public services either too fragile or too disempowered to respond to...
Opinion
Subcontinental Drift
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: August 9, 2016
As global players reorient their power calculus, Pakistan’s maritime rim land is experiencing new cartographic anxieties. In Tehran this summer, President Rouhani, President Ghani and PM Modi heralded the Chabahar...
Conference and Research reports
Pakistan: Monitoring the Key Regional Powers 3
Date: July 19, 2016
This report is the third and final in a series of three Monitoring Briefs (2016) designed to monitor and track the actions and public statements of five key regional actors...
Publications
Second Opinion – Foreign Policy in Crisis: Can Pakistan Overcome?
Date: July 18, 2016
As Pakistan’s foreign policy apparatus comes under fire for failure to perform on multiple fronts, Islamabad’s institutional paralysis is damaging the country’s international standing. With the Foreign Office mandated to do little more than issue reactive statements...
Opinion
Stabilisation Straitjacket: Budget 2016 and the Growth Bottleneck
by: Sakib Sherani
Date: June 26, 2016
Backdrop A nation’s budget and its overall economic policy framework are situated within a certain macroeconomic context.The mix of fiscal and other policies pursued by a government should respond to...
Opinion
Smokescreen in South Punjab
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: June 25, 2016
Back in May the Punjab Assembly unanimously carried a resolution hailing anti-terror operations in the province. On paper, the numbers look impressive: 10,000 intelligence-based operations have been carried out across Punjab since...
Opinions
The NSG and South Asian Security
by: Zamir Akram
Date: June 15, 2016
The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal cartel of 48 countries that regulates nuclear commerce for civilian uses and prevents nuclear weapons proliferation met in Vienna on 9 and 10...
Opinion
Things Fall Apart: The Politics of US Aid to Pakistan
by: Sauleha Kamal
Date: June 11, 2016
In a clear case of déjà vu, the United States has blocked $300 million in military aid to Pakistan, making the release of the funds contingent on Islamabad taking demonstrable steps...
Opinion
A Primordial Gender Binary
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: May 31, 2016
The recent death of Alisha, a 23-year old transgender activist from Peshawar, has brought in stark relief the continuing neglect and lack of entitlements faced by the third gender in...
Opinion
Missed Opportunities
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 22, 2016
As Tehran shakes off the morning-after effects of its international comeback, regional powers are lining up to cash in on the new Iranian moment, taking advantage of credit lines and...
Conference and Research reports
Pakistan: Monitoring the Key Regional Powers 2
Date: May 5, 2016
Quarterly Monitoring Brief 2 This report is the second in a series of three Monitoring Briefs (2016) designed to monitor and track the actions and public statements of five key...
Policy Brief
Accommodating Gender-Sensitive Micro Enterprises
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: April 30, 2016
The 2007 Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Policy defines SMEs as all enterprises that employ less than 250 people and make an annual sum of under 250 million rupees. However,...
Publications
Second Opinion – Suing for Peace after Pathankot: Foreign Secretary-Level Talks
Date: April 28, 2016
Following months of speculation surrounding the fate of the bilateral dialogue between Pakistan and India, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry met his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar on April 26 in...
Opinion
D-Penalty to D-Chowk
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: April 20, 2016
The protests that followed Qadri's execution were not instituted on a remonstration of capital punishment There is a disconnect (and at times an overlap) between those rallying against the death...
Opinion
Representational Deficits in Electoral Reform
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: April 19, 2016
A functional democracy requires public ownership of the electoral process. In Pakistan, making these processes inclusive of women, persons with disabilities and minorities is even more important. The recently released...
Opinion
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: April 17, 2016
In what has been an erratic few months for an India-Pakistan relationship still grappling with how to steer clear of diplomatic reversals, the capture of Kulbhushan Yadav in Balochistan has created...
Opinion
Gender & Security: Why Women’s Voices Matter
by: Sauleha Kamal
Date: April 15, 2016
This October, it will be sixteen years since the United Nations adopted Security Council Resolution 1325 affirming the importance of women in peace negotiations, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction. Despite this,...
Opinion
Fringe Power?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: April 3, 2016
As large tracts of Iraq and Syria hover between Westphalian meltdown and militant takeover, policy pathways for Pakistan in the Middle East remain piloted by Islamabad’s foreign policy equation with...
Opinion
Winter of Discontent
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 9, 2016
For President Ghani, it’s been a harsh winter, and one that has laid bare the key capacity deficits and constraints of an Afghan state on the defensive. As Afghanistan’s winter...
Conference and Research reports
Pakistan: Monitoring the Key Regional Powers 1
Date: March 2, 2016
Quarterly Monitoring Brief 1 This is the first in a series of three Quarterly Monitoring Briefs (2016) designed to monitor and track the actions, public statements of five key regional...
Publications
Coalitions, Caveats and Candidates: Why Pakistan Must Care about the U.S. Election
by: Sauleha Kamal
Date: February 29, 2016
In the past few weeks, the United States has confirmed the sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan in spite of Indian resistance; warned Islamabad about its nuclear weaponry; asked it...
Publications
Policy Brief | Working to Counter Terrorism: Prospects for Pakistan-India Intelligence & Security Cooperation
Date: February 19, 2016
Pakistan and India share one of the most crisis- and risk-prone relationships in contemporary international politics. While the challenge posed to this relationship by the spectre of transnational terrorism is...
Publications
Policy Brief | Working to Counter Terrorism: Prospects for Pakistan-India Intelligence & Security Cooperation
Date: February 19, 2016
Pakistan and India share one of the most crisis- and risk-prone relationships in contemporary international politics. While the challenge posed to this relationship by the spectre of transnational terrorism is...
Policy Brief
Working to Counter Terrorism: Prospects for Pakistan-India Intelligence & Security Cooperation
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 19, 2016
Pakistan and India share one of the most crisis- and risk-prone relationships in contemporary international politics. While the challenge posed to this relationship by the spectre of transnational terrorism is...
Opinion
Bringing NAP to South Punjab
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 6, 2016
Two developments in early 2016 – the Punjab government’s move to detain Jaish operatives, and a high-profile Taliban attack on Bacha Khan University – have worked to refocus parliamentary debate...
Publications
Chaophraya Dialogue 17 | Report of Proceedings
Date: January 22, 2016
The 17th round of the Chaophraya Dialogue was held exclusively for senior mediapersons and journalists from India and Pakistan in Bangkok from December 2-3, 2015. This conference reviewed and discussed...
Conference and Research reports
State of Religious Freedom in Pakistan
Date: January 20, 2016
Recent years have witnessed an escalation in the persecution of minority communities in Pakistan. The exclusion of non-Muslims from mainstream national life is only half the story. Increasingly, extremists have...
Publications
Pakistan 2016 – Flashpoints
Date: January 1, 2016
Feature layout and design by Zara Haque As Pakistan crosses into 2016, Jinnah Institute asked area experts to identify and highlight the most serious challenges facing the country that could...
Publications
Pakistan 2016 – Flashpoints
Date: January 1, 2016
Feature layout and design by Zara Haque As Pakistan crosses into 2016, Jinnah Institute asked area experts to identify and highlight the most serious challenges facing the country that could...
Opinion
Birthday Diplomacy
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 28, 2015
A month ago, the odds of Prime Minister Modi surprise-landing in Lahore on Christmas Day to meet his Pakistani counterpart were next to nil. But thanks to what has arguably been...
Opinion
Pakistan’s Hard Choices in the Middle East
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 20, 2015
When Pakistan’s parliament adopted a resolution to stay out of a Saudi-led war against Yemen this April, consternation across the Gulf was palpable. Until this year, the most compelling reason...
Opinion
After Kunduz
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: October 19, 2015
As the dust clouds settle over Kunduz, Afghan peacemakers once again find themselves pitted against domestic public opinion. At home President Ghani is confronted with a tough new reality: that...
Opinion
Institutionalizing Electoral Reform
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: August 18, 2015
Beyond the headlines and Constitution Avenue blockade, there is growing consensus among political parties on the need for electoral reforms to strengthen democratic processes in Pakistan. This consensus stems from...
Opinion
The Kids Are Not Alright
by: Rimmel Mohydin
Date: August 16, 2015
There exist at least 400 videos of drugged and weeping children who, if able to talk, are begging not to be touched. 280 children have a story, which can’t be...
Publications
Chaophraya Dialogue 16
Date: August 10, 2015
Bangkok, Thailand: Senior interlocutors from India and Pakistan met in Thailand for the 16th Chaophraya Dialogue and discussed issues of mutual concern and interest. At the end of the two-day dialogue,...
Opinion
Achilles Heel
by: Safwan A. Khan
Date: August 6, 2015
Of all the strategic assets that Pakistan can currently use to propel itself forward, the most discussed is its demography, comprised of a young and vibrant working age population. Left...
Opinion
‘JI President Sherry Rehman asks if Islamabad can Leverage the China-Iran Opportunity’
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: July 26, 2015
As the big global strategic picture shifts on its axis, Pakistan has opportunity knocking in two broad gradients, if not more. The only worry is that even if the knocks...
Opinion
Hard Talk
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 18, 2015
There was always going to be a lot riding on the first direct meeting between the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) and the Afghan Taliban. Two years after Hamid Karzai flew...
Opinion
Bring back the Moratorium
by: Reema Omer
Date: June 19, 2015
Pakistan has executed more than 170 people since it discarded the country’s informal six-year moratorium on the death penalty. At risk of imminent execution are a further 400 people that...
Policy Brief
Beyond Stabilization – Moving Towards a Growth Economy
by: Ali Khizar
Date: June 19, 2015
The growth trajectory of Pakistan’s economy has remained visibly low since 2008. Over the years, supply side bottlenecks owing to persistent energy shortages and inefficiencies within the sector have strained...
Opinion
Beyond Highways and Corridors
by: Safwan A. Khan
Date: June 3, 2015
When the federal government confessed to committing a ‘typo’ in the official economic growth rate figure announced last year, it didn’t come as a surprise to many who have now...
Opinion
Bus to Islamabad
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 28, 2015
When Indian Defense Minister Mannohar Parrikar spoke of ‘neutralising terrorists through terrorists,’ on a private news channel last week, his comments threw into sharp relief the time warp that the...
Opinion
Long Road to Peace
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 9, 2015
The war may have been won, but Afghanistan’s warm-weather fighting season is just getting started. As the Afghan Taliban fan out into the northern province of Kunduz, looking to take...
Policy Brief
Restructuring Pakistan’s Devolved Family Planning Services
by: Safieh Shah
Date: March 19, 2015
In 2014, Pakistan’s population was estimated at being over 188 million making it the world’s sixth-most populous country. Since the census in 1951, the population has quadrupled while the urban...
Publications
Second Opinion: Gearing for a Reset – India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary Level Talks
Date: March 2, 2015
In the wake of a tense quarter for Indo-Pak relations and continuing violence on the Line of Control (LoC), the two Foreign Secretaries are finally set to meet this week...
Opinion
Changing State of Play
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 26, 2015
When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov landed in Beijing earlier this month, he drove directly from the airport to meet his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. The meeting – less than...
Conference and Research reports
Devolution: Provincial Autonomy and the 18th Amendment
Date: February 11, 2015
2010 marked a watershed in the structural reform of the Pakistani state. Not since 1973, when Pakistan’s constitution was framed, had such a significant and wide ranging institutional restructuring been...
Policy Brief
Developing a Progressive Internet Policy for Pakistan
by: Jahanzaib Haque
Date: January 30, 2015
Increasing levels of internet use and accessibility have given rise to significant challenges across the world; Pakistan has not been an exception. However, the response to these challenges at the...
Opinion
Not out of the Woods, Yet
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 25, 2014
Days after the US-Pakistan Defence Consultative Group’s meeting last month, Congress quietly green-signaled the National Defence Authorisation Act 2015. The new bill includes an extension of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF)...
Policy Brief
Political Integration and Affirmative Legislation for Minorities in Pakistan
by: Peter Jacob
Date: December 24, 2014
The recent spate of violence against Pakistan’s religious minorities culminated in the dehumanizing murder of Shama and Shehzad – a Christian couple from Kot Radha Kishan. The couple were beaten...
Publications
Policy Brief: ISIS Eyes Influence in Pakistan – Focus, Fears & Future Prospects
Date: December 23, 2014
By Hassan Abbas The rapidly expanding militant force in Iraq and Syria known globally by its Arabic acronym Daesh (al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham) or in English ISIS (Islamic...
Publications
Policy Brief: ISIS Eyes Influence in Pakistan – Focus, Fears & Future Prospects
Date: December 23, 2014
By Hassan Abbas The rapidly expanding militant force in Iraq and Syria known globally by its Arabic acronym Daesh (al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham) or in English ISIS (Islamic...
Policy Brief
ISIS Eyes Influence in Pakistan – Focus, Fears & Future Prospects
by: Hassan Abbas
Date: December 23, 2014
The rapidly expanding militant force in Iraq and Syria known globally by its Arabic acronym Daesh (al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham) or in English ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq...
Opinion
Childhood Under Attack
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: December 19, 2014
For a while, the silence following Zarb-e-Azb had been unnerving. Then,the apparent success in quelling terror began to be taken for granted, and national attention was diverted to dharnas and...
Opinion
Polio: A Policy Predicament
by: Palvashay Sethi
Date: December 8, 2014
The government's response to Pakistan’s impending polio crisis has been near negligible and characterised by apathy. The Pakistani public and children are especially at risk as the government seems unable...
Policy Brief
Reimagining Human Rights in Pakistan
by: Asad Jamal
Date: November 12, 2014
A rising graph of extremism in Pakistan has triggered alarm on the plummeting standards of human rights protections and entitlements across the country. The recent burning of a Christian couple...
Publications
LoC in Crisis
Date: October 15, 2014
Design by Mona Khan *The figures quoted above have been collected from local and international newspapers. The number of ceasefire violations may vary across sources. Why is this time different?...
Publications
LoC in Crisis
Date: October 15, 2014
Design by Mona Khan *The figures quoted above have been collected from local and international newspapers. The number of ceasefire violations may vary across sources. Why is this time different?...
Publications
Second Opinion: New Battle Lines – Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency Beyond Zarb-E-Azb
Date: October 3, 2014
After a summer of airstrikes and ground offensives in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the military operation against terrorist sanctuaries in North Waziristan has now entered its second trimester....
Opinion
Militant Hydra
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 19, 2014
For militants sharing the inhospitable Pakistan-Afghanistan border, winter is coming. Structural changes in the militant landscape have left terrorist game plans in a state of flux. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)...
Publications
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief April 2014 – June 2014
Date: September 11, 2014
This monitoring brief recaps significant developments in Indo-Pak relations between April 2014 and June 2014, including statements, visits, and policy initiatives. It is part of a series of monitoring briefs...
Publications
Policy Brief: Prioritizing Education Response for Internally Displaced Children in Pakistan
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: September 3, 2014
As of August 2014, there were over 1 million registered Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and unknown numbers of unregistered IDPs living in Pakistan....
Policy Brief
Prioritizing Education Response for Internally Displaced Children in Pakistan
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: September 3, 2014
As of August 2014, there were over 1 million registered Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and unknown numbers of unregistered IDPs living in Pakistan....
Opinion
What about the IDPs?
by: Asad Hashim
Date: August 27, 2014
You would think automatic gunfire in a crowd of thousands would herald more of a reaction. As the shots rang out, though, the majority of the thousands of internally displaced...
Annual Report (2013-2014)
Date: August 21, 2014
The goal of the Open Democracy Initiative is to bridge the gap between citizens and state and to articulate policy responses based on inclusive research. By pursuing these goals, Jinnah...
Opinion
11 August: Jinnah’s Promise Betrayed
by: Yasser Latif Hamdani
Date: August 11, 2014
On 11 August 1947, the Pakistan Constituent Assembly (“PCA”) met for the first time. The inaugural session was presided by Shri Jogindranath Mandal, president of the Scheduled Caste Federation and...
Publications
Chaophraya Dialogue 14
Date: June 25, 2014
Chiang Mai, Thailand: Key opinion makers from India and Pakistan, including parliamentarians, former diplomats, former military officers, mediapersons and policy experts met in Chiang Mai for the 14th round of the...
Publications
REVIEWING INDO-PAK BILATERAL RELATIONS: QUARTERLY MONITORING BRIEF DECEMBER 2013 – MARCH 2014
Date: June 6, 2014
This monitoring brief recaps significant developments in Indo-Pak relations between December 2013 and March 2014, including statements, visits, and policy initiatives. It is part of a series of monitoring briefs...
Conference and Research reports
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief December 2013 – March 2014
Date: May 22, 2014
This monitoring brief recaps significant developments in Indo-Pak relations between December 2013 and March 2014, including statements, visits, and policy initiatives. It is part of a series of monitoring briefs...
Publications
Patrolling Pakistan’s South Corridor
Date: May 8, 2014
By Fahd Humayun It's a short, inconspicuous drive for militants travelling from the riverside city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Dera Ghazi Khan, the second largest district in Punjab. Cross-country,...
Publications
Patrolling Pakistan’s South Corridor
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 8, 2014
It's a short, inconspicuous drive for militants travelling from the riverside city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Dera Ghazi Khan, the second largest district in Punjab. Cross-country, the...
Publications
Patrolling Pakistan’s South Corridor
Date: May 8, 2014
By Fahd Humayun It's a short, inconspicuous drive for militants travelling from the riverside city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Dera Ghazi Khan, the second largest district in Punjab. Cross-country,...
Publications
Patrolling Pakistan’s South Corridor
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 8, 2014
It's a short, inconspicuous drive for militants travelling from the riverside city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Dera Ghazi Khan, the second largest district in Punjab. Cross-country, the hilly trek...
Opinion
Afghanistan’s Presidential Election 2014
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 6, 2014
The Long Road to April In less than a week, Afghanistan will be heading to the polls to elect a new President. This will be the country’s first democratic leadership...
Opinion
Looking Beyond India’s Chabahar Option
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 7, 2014
The ‘Bali Package’ unveiled at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Indonesia this December backed new mechanisms for lowering global trade barriers, including an agreement between members (yet to be ratified...
Publications
Looking Beyond India’s Chabahar Option
Date: March 7, 2014
By Fahd Humayun- The ‘Bali Package’ unveiled at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Indonesia this December backed new mechanisms for lowering global trade barriers, including an agreement between members (yet...
Publications
Afghanistan’s Presidential Election 2014
Date: March 6, 2014
By Fahd Humayun The Long Road to April In less than a week, Afghanistan will be heading to the polls to elect a new President. This will be the country’s...
Opinion
Cosmetic Changes
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: February 28, 2014
“Desperate times call for desperate measures” was a common refrain in the post 9/11 world, as security establishments across the globe geared up to supposedly combat unprecedented levels of terrorism. The...
Opinion
Trojan Tactics
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 4, 2014
Last week the PM teetered on the knife-edge of launching a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan. For the first time in months it seemed as if the PML-N had...
Publications
Trojan Tactics
Date: February 4, 2014
By Fahd Humayun- Last week the PM teetered on the knife-edge of launching a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan. For the first time in months it seemed as if...
Opinion
Honoring Aitzaz Hasan: Fighting the Demons of Sectarianism
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: January 11, 2014
On the morning of January 6th, Aitzaz Hasan lost his life while preventing a suicide bomber from entering his school. The only thing standing between the 2000 children enrolled in...
Opinion
India-Pakistan trade relations: Current and Potential
by: Rohit Kumar
Date: January 3, 2014
In recent years, efforts towards promoting peace in South Asia have pivoted around the idea of improving trade relations as the best bet in forging a lasting relationship between...
Opinion
Helping Pakistan’s Rural Women Help Themselves
by: Bina Shah
Date: December 12, 2013
Pakistan’s rural women are slowly enacting change in their lives. Women perform a significant amount of labor in the fields, but that they still struggle to be recognized as equal...
Opinion
Papering Over Faultlines – The Fall Out of the Peshawar Church Bombing
by: Anthony Permal
Date: December 2, 2013
As I write this, Christian families in Peshawar, Pakistan are preparing to bury their dead, who were massacred in a suicide bombing at their church on Sunday. This isn't all...
Opinion
She’s More than a Slogan
by: Ahmer Naqvi
Date: December 2, 2013
In a few hours, we will know if a young girl will get to become what one commentator described as the reason the Nobel Peace Prize gets its credibility...
Opinion
Report says “Depoliticising the Youth will Derail the Nation”
by: Salman Zaidi
Date: December 2, 2013
The peace process between India and Pakistan is often like a snakes and ladders trope. The recent flare-up across the Line of Control (LoC), with daily reports of cross border shelling...
Opinion
Challenges of Political Transition
by: Raza Rumi
Date: December 2, 2013
Pakistan’s next general election, due in a few months, will be the first where civilian forces are in charge of the transition from one elected government to another. Throughout...
Publications
Policy Brief: Another Approach to Madrassa Reforms in Pakistan
Date: November 29, 2013
By Syed Mohammad Ali The rise of extremism and intolerance in Pakistan over the decades, not just in the militant periphery but in mainstream society too, has been promoted by a...
Publications
Pakistan, the United States and the End Game in Afghanistan: Perceptions of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Elite
Date: November 29, 2013
As the so-called “end game” in Afghanistan approaches, the momentum is growing to find an amicable solution to the conflict. The U.S. and other troop contributing countries are committed to...
Opinion
A Game of Thrones in Waziristan: The Return of Fazlullah
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 29, 2013
Maulana Fazlullah was always the wild card. As Hakimullah Mehsud’s last rites were being read, and emergency conclaves were being summoned across six other tribal agencies to deliberate upon the militant...
Publications
Population in Pakistan: Holding the seams together
Date: November 29, 2013
y Madeeha Ansari In this Issue: The pressures and potential of a burgeoning population and recommendations to avert future crises. The “population bomb” is no longer a leading cause for concern...
Publications
Policy Brief – Grant of MFN Status to India: Possible Impacts
Date: November 29, 2013
By Safiya Aftab According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in FY2010, the value of Pakistan’s exports to India was $260 million, and the value of imports from India...
Publications
Policy Brief – India Pakistan Relations: The Way Forward
Date: November 29, 2013
The resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan in 2011 has revived the hope that the two countries would make a renewed effort to resolve their bilateral problems. The dialogue...
Publications
Policy Brief: Monitoring Hate Speech on the Internet
Date: November 29, 2013
By Annum Sadiq The internet is the world’s largest ungoverned space, where users access information, exchange views and undertake collective action. At least 20 million Pakistanis are online, following a...
Publications
Policy Brief- Performance and Prospects of Democracy in Pakistan: Political Scenarios Affecting the Elections 2013
Date: November 29, 2013
It is for the first time in Pakistan’s history that an elected government is completing its term (2008-2013). The Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition was jolted on several occasions, but it...
Publications
Policy Brief: Economic Policy and Management in Pakistan (2008 to 2013)
Date: November 29, 2013
By Safiya Aftab In the five years of the previous government’s tenure, the country has seen five Finance Ministers (FM), four Finance Secretaries (who have had six tenures among them,...
Publications
Policy Brief: Promises and Policies – Reviewing Party Manifestos for the 2013 Elections
Date: November 29, 2013
By Ahmer Naqvi 2013 promises to be a historic year for democracy in Pakistan, as the country marks its first democratic transition between civilian governments in its 66-year history. Unlike...
Opinion
Moment of Opportunity
by: Sherry Rehman and Amitabh Mattoo
Date: November 29, 2013
As co-chairs of the Chaophraya dialogue between opinion makers from India and Pakistan, we are encouraged by reports of resumption of the official dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi, and...
Opinion
Time to Move on
by: Raza Rumi
Date: November 29, 2013
Why India's leadership needs to break with the past, reimagine Pakistan India-Pakistan relations are once again in the spotlight and for the usual reasons. The two states have perfected the...
Opinion
Can the Peace Process Move Past the Doha Collapse?
by: Syed Baqir Sajjad
Date: November 29, 2013
As the 12th year of the Afghan war draws to an impasse, there are signs of an abstract convergence about peace in the country, although many of the components of that...
Publications
Can the Peace Process Move Past the Doha Collapse?
Date: November 29, 2013
By Syed Baqir Sajjad As the 12th year of the Afghan war draws to an impasse, there are signs of an abstract convergence about peace in the country, although many of...
Opinion
Karzai in Pakistan – Tailoring Great Expectations
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 29, 2013
He flew into Pakistan from Kabul on Monday with a tightly scheduled ten-hour itinerary in hand, only to later announce his decision to extend his visit until Tuesday and lunch...
Opinion
Pakistan-India: What Next?
by: Salman Zaidi
Date: November 29, 2013
The peace process between India and Pakistan is often like a snakes and ladders trope. The recent flare-up across the Line of Control (LoC), with daily reports of cross border shelling...
Opinion
Navigating the Currents of Pakistan’s Water Debate
by: Ahmed Rafay Alam
Date: November 29, 2013
The amount of water on our planet has been the same since the beginning of time. The same water is either in the atmosphere, in clouds and rain; on the...
Opinion
New Assembly Faces Big Challenges
by: Shahzad Raza
Date: November 29, 2013
The general elections held on May 11 have led to decisive shift in the composition of the National Assembly of Pakistan, in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz....
Opinion
Hate-Speech and Social Media in Pakistan
by: Jahanzaib Haque
Date: November 29, 2013
Pakistani media is an agent of CIA and RAW, Shariat ya Shahadat (Shariah or Martydom), Maslak-e-Deoband (Cult of Deoband) and Shias are unbelievers. This is not a list of slogans chanted by extremists on the streets...
Opinion
What Will We Ban Next?
by: Jahanzaib Haque
Date: November 29, 2013
Censorship, when undertaken in the name of vague, ill-defined and subjective concepts such as ‘national interest’ or religion and morality, is a slippery slope with disastrous consequences – and this...
Opinion
Invoking the Morality Clause
by: Nadir Hassan
Date: November 29, 2013
In the years gone past, Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution had been treated like adverbs in an elaborate sentence – there to make things look comprehensive, but ultimately...
Opinion
Resurgence of Polio virus in Pakistan is a national emergency
by: Faris Islam
Date: November 29, 2013
Pakistan is one of the three countries in which polio remains endemic. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has recently reported that there are six sanctuaries for the polio virus:...
Opinion
Federalism: The Journey Continues
by: Mian Raza Rabbani (NI)
Date: November 29, 2013
Federalism has thus far been poorly understood in Pakistan. It is a system that respects diversity, promotes pluralism, and balances national with state powers. Federal governments promote stronger institutions...
Opinion
The Education Landscape – Bridging Gaps
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: November 29, 2013
The year 2011 was the “Year of Education” for Pakistan. The Pakistan Education Task Force, drawing upon Article 25A of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, created a sense of urgency...
Publications
Eroding the vote banks: IDPs in Karachi
Date: November 29, 2013
In September 2010, the Jinnah Institute carried out a series of focus groups with flood victims living in Karachi's relief camps. The focus of the study was to assess the...
Publications
Policy Brief: The Mumbai Trial and Related Legal Issues
Date: November 29, 2013
By Ahmer Bilal Soofi Two years after the November 26th attacks in Mumbai, the trial of the accused mastermind of the attacks continues in Pakistan. As with any trial, the...
Publications
Stability in the Nuclear Context: Making South Asians Safe
Date: November 29, 2013
South Asia Advisor to the US Institute of Peace Moeed Yusuf authors this month's Policy Brief on Nuclear Security, and outlines a plan for working towards strategic stability in the region India...
Publications
Women in the Media: JI Policy Brief
Date: November 29, 2013
By Sabina Ansari This policy brief examines the current representation of women in Pakistan`s national media landscape, which includes the status of women in the media industry, the portrayal of...
Opinion
Participants in Peace
by: Ayaz Wazir
Date: November 25, 2013
The entire 2012 passed without any positive development taking place relating to Afghanistan, except the very last month, which witnessed some encouraging signs in the shape of two conferences,...
Publications
Article Alert: Time to Move on
Date: November 25, 2013
By Raza Rumi - Why India's leadership needs to break with the past, reimagine Pakistan India-Pakistan relations are once again in the spotlight and for the usual reasons. The two...
Publications
Can the Peace Process Move Past the Doha Collapse?
Date: November 25, 2013
By Syed Baqir Sajjad As the 12th year of the Afghan war draws to an impasse, there are signs of an abstract convergence about peace in the country, although many of...
Opinion
Overcoming the Livelihood Crisis in Flood-Affected Areas
by: Asad Sayeed
Date: November 25, 2013
Perhaps one of the most formidable challenges facing the state and society in Pakistan today is the reconstruction and rehabilitation after the damage caused by the recent floods. While there...
Opinion
Navigating the Currents of Pakistan’s Water Debate
by: Ahmed Rafay Alam
Date: November 25, 2013
The amount of water on our planet has been the same since the beginning of time. The same water is either in the atmosphere, in clouds and rain; on the...
Publications
What Will We Ban Next?
Date: November 25, 2013
By Jahanzaib Haque Censorship, when undertaken in the name of vague, ill-defined and subjective concepts such as ‘national interest’ or religion and morality, is a slippery slope with disastrous consequences...
Opinion
Flood Updates: February 2011
by: Erum Haider
Date: November 25, 2013
Jinnah Institute: Update from the Pakistan Floods Six months after the devastating floods hit Pakistan, early evaluations of the crisis indicate that the challenges are far from over, and that...
Opinion
Prioritizing Women and Children During Flood Rehabilitation
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 25, 2013
10 million women and children were affected in last year’s catastrophic floods that caused the largest humanitarian crisis in Pakistan[1]. The areas most impacted by the floods were among the...
Conference and Research reports
Delivering on Promises: Assessing Implementation of Political Party Manifestos
Date: November 22, 2013
Party manifestos are central to a competitive electoral process as well as the larger civic engagement process. This report will therefore aim to chart a broader view of the implementation...
Publications
Extremism Watch: Mapping Conflict Trends in Pakistan 2011 – 2012
Date: November 22, 2013
2012 saw previous patterns of violence against religious minorities continue to be repeated, often with greater intensity. This report documents the increase in bombings at Sufi shrines, the rising spate of Hazara...
Publications
Delivering on Promises: Assessing Implementation of Political Party Manifestos
Date: November 22, 2013
Party manifestos are central to a competitive electoral process as well as the larger civic engagement process. This report will therefore aim to chart a broader view of the implementation...
Publications
Extremism Watch Report Launch
Date: November 22, 2013
ISLAMABAD February 16, 2012: Pakistan's problem of extremism is a greater threat to the country than terrorism. This was the consensus during the February 16th launch of Jinnah Institute's report "˜Extremism Watch:...
Publications
JI Report Launched: ‘Pakistan, the United States and the End Game in Afghanistan: Perceptions of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Elite’
Date: November 22, 2013
Islamabad, 25th August: Pakistani foreign policy elite expressed their views in a report published by Jinnah Institute on the endgame in Afghanistan and Pakistan's stakes in light of the same. The report,...
A Question of Faith: A Report on the Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan
Date: November 22, 2013
Why a report on the status of religious minorities? As part of the Jinnah Institute's Open Democracy initiative, "˜A Question of Faith': A Report on the Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan' is...
Publications
JI Report: Pakistan at Risk: Challenges and Opportunities After the Flood
Date: November 22, 2013
More than three months into the flood crisis aid lifelines for humanitarian needs and rehabilitation remain underfunded, while the governance of the largest disaster the world has seen in many...
Publications
Article Alert : Moment of Opportunity
Date: November 22, 2013
By Sherry Rehman and Amitabh Mattoo - As co-chairs of the Chaophraya dialogue between opinion makers from India and Pakistan, we are encouraged by reports of resumption of the official...
Publications
Apolitical or Depoliticised? Pakistan’s Youth and Politics
Date: November 21, 2013
Pakistan has a long history of student politics and students have played a major role in shaping the directions taken by the state and the government of Pakistan. However, the...
Opinion
Is democracy threatened by governor’s rule in Balochistan?
by: Syed Baqir Sajjad
Date: November 19, 2013
With the federal government set to end Governor's Rule in Balochistan to set up an interim administration for elections, it is time to evaluate if the move helped improve the...
Opinion
Sherry Rehman, JI Executive President, on the “Malala Moment”
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: November 19, 2013
She didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize. That's totally ok. The award nomination is a milestone among many. Malala Yousafzai, 16, is still proud and hopeful that she will move bigger...
Opinion
Moving Past the Crisis Metric
by: Salim Raza
Date: November 19, 2013
Salim Raza, Former Governor State Bank of Pakistan, poses key questions on Pakistan's crisis-ridden economic trajectory and points to a path forward for embedding the model in sustained macro...
Opinion
An Anatomy of Sharif’s First 100 Days
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: November 19, 2013
For a third-timer it’s been a laborious start; a triumphant return to power notwithstanding, the first 100 days of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government have been decidedly short on deliverables....
Opinion
Will Pakistan’s devolution reform lead to pro-women policies at the sub-national level?
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 18, 2013
Punjab has shown the way forward after the devolution of women's development ministry; however, implementation will remain a challenge The past two years have proved to be significant with the...
Opinion
Courage in the Face of Great Adversity
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: November 18, 2013
Malala Yousufzai has helped Pakistan remember what courage in the face of great adversity looks like. She has helped remind our fractured nation that there are still some lines...
Opinion
Rimsha’s acquittal: a new beginning?
by: Raza Rumi
Date: November 18, 2013
An Islamabad court has acquitted Rimsha Masih, a Christian child accused of blasphemy. Her trial showed that a local Mullah tried to frame her, and she is now free....
Opinion
Women in Pakistan – Battling the Odds
by: Mariam Kizilbash
Date: November 18, 2013
For many decades in Pakistan, an entire architecture of laws has been used to persecute and marginalise women, most potently symbolised by the Hudood Ordinances and other discriminatory laws instituted...
Opinion
Pakistan’s Floods One Year On: Flood Victims Continue To Face Long Term Challenges
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 18, 2013
This month marks a year since Pakistan faced the worst floods in its history. The deluge devastated and submerged entire villages, roads, bridges, water supply and sanitation infrastructure, agricultural lands,...
Opinion
Strengthening democracy through access to information
by: Raniya Khan
Date: November 18, 2013
The recent introduction of Rule 46 in the Punjab Government Rules of Business 2011 disallows all government employees in Punjab to speak about official business to media, non-officials, or to...
Opinion
Repeating History: Floods in Sindh create devastation for over 7.4 million people
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 18, 2013
A tsunamic deluge of monsoon rains threatens Pakistan once again, floods have affected another 7.4million people this year, while twenty million people are still struggling to cope with the devastation...
Opinion
Balochistan File
by: Saba Imtiaz & Madeeha Ansari
Date: November 18, 2013
The roots of violence in Balochistan can be traced to multiple sources, from political unrest, to sectarian strife, to a severe development deficit. In two parallel analyses, JI provides an...
Opinion
Year in Review 2010: Pakistan’s Continuing Flood Crisis
by: Erum Haider
Date: November 18, 2013
The monsoon floods that hit Pakistan in July 2010 killed 1,752 people and affected nearly 18.1 million across the length of the country. Many of the deaths were reported in...
Opinion
Rule of Law
by: Erum Haider
Date: November 18, 2013
No society has ever attained a perfect realization of the rule of law. But when plotting 35 countries on an objective scale, Pakistan is dangerously close to perfect failure, scoring...
Opinion
National Plans for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation
by: Nadeem Ahmed
Date: November 18, 2013
In the days and weeks after the floods it has been suggested that the government's response was lacking, or that coordination mechanisms were weak. These are unfair remarks - the...
Opinion
A guilty witness to the flood exodus
by: Nasim Zehra
Date: November 18, 2013
It was around sunset and I was watching the floodwater spread to Tando Hafiz Shah. The small town in southern Sindh with an estimated population of 50,000 was almost completely...
Opinion
Pakistan Flood Recovery: Can Zardari Deliver Aid?
by: Shuja Nawaz
Date: November 18, 2013
The current flood in Pakistan is the worst ever-natural disaster to strike that country even as it is fighting an existential threat from a major Taliban insurgency inside its Western...
Opinion
Democracy at the brink?
by: Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi
Date: November 18, 2013
Daily Times 26th September, 2010 Democracy is a joint exercise of different state institutions and the political class with an emphasis on constitutionalism, the rule of law and respect for democratic...
Opinion
Year in Review 2010: Attacks on Shrines and Education
Date: November 11, 2013
In 2010, Pakistan witnessed a startling increase in the scale of attacks on shrines of Sufi saints throughout the country. Attacking shrines is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan "”...
Publications
Extremism Watch: Mapping Conflict Trends in Pakistan 2011 – 2012
Date: November 1, 2013
2012 saw previous patterns of violence against religious minorities continue to be repeated, often with greater intensity. This report documents the increase in bombings at Sufi shrines, the rising spate of Hazara...
Publications
Can the Peace Process Move Past the Doha Collapse?
Date: November 1, 2013
As the 12th year of the Afghan war draws to an impasse, there are signs of an abstract convergence about peace in the country, although many of the components of...
Publications
Karzai in Pakistan – Tailoring Great Expectations
Date: November 1, 2013
He flew into Pakistan from Kabul on Monday with a tightly scheduled ten-hour itinerary in hand, only to later announce his decision to extend his visit until Tuesday and lunch...
Publications
Security Dispatch
Date: October 31, 2013
Cross Border Incursions across the Pak-Afghan border: Destabilising the Equation The July 24th attack into Bajaur Agency marked the latest cross border attack by militants from Afghanistan into Pakistan. This...
Publications
Pakistan, the United States and the End Game in Afghanistan: Perceptions of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Elite
Date: October 31, 2013
As the so-called "end game" in Afghanistan approaches, the momentum is growing to find an amicable solution to the conflict. The U.S. and other troop contributing countries are committed to...
Publications
JI Report Launched: “˜Pakistan, the United States and the End Game in Afghanistan: Perceptions of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Elite’
Date: October 31, 2013
Islamabad, 25th August: Pakistani foreign policy elite expressed their views in a report published by Jinnah Institute on the endgame in Afghanistan and Pakistan's stakes in light of the same....
Publications
Policy Brief – India Pakistan Relations: The Way Forward
Date: October 31, 2013
The resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan in 2011 has revived the hope that the two countries would make a renewed effort to resolve their bilateral problems. The dialogue...
Publications
Policy Brief – A Time of Peril
Date: October 31, 2013
Ever since 1960, the Indus Waters Treaty has served as the one bedrock element of stability in relations between India and Pakistan. One way or another, those days are over....
Publications
Policy Brief – Pak – India Trade: A Regional Perspective
Date: October 31, 2013
"Our agenda has been clearly laid out in terms of preparing timelines for complete normalisation of trade relationship and implementation of committed SAFTA obligations," said Indian Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar...
Opinion
Year in Review 2010: Militancy and the fight for internal security
by: Erum Haider
Date: October 31, 2013
Pakistan’s struggle for internal security entered a new phase in 2010 as the US and its allies increased pressure on Afghanistan with the announcement of the deployment of 30,000 troops...
Publications
STRATEGIC SECURITY INITIATIVE
Date: October 10, 2013
JI actively seeks to articulate independent national security strategies for Pakistan that incorporate the country's strategic imperatives while making room for voices from civil society, parliamentarians, academia and media experts....
Publications
Second Opinion: The Ambiguity of the APC’s Outcomes
Date: October 9, 2013
Given the fanfare and expectations surrounding last week's All Parties Conference - the incumbent PML-N government's first experiment in public and political outreach since coming to power a little less...
Publications
Second Opinion: Restructuring Pak-U.S. Relations
Date: October 9, 2013
Jinnah Institute hosted its 6th policy discussion on the future of Pak-US relations and invited a panel of leading journalists and policy experts to speak on the issue. Ahmed Rashid,...
Publications
Second Opinion: Cross-border Incursions on the Pak-Afghan Border
Date: October 9, 2013
Approximately a hundred Taliban militants crossed the border from Afghanistan on June 25th and attacked a Pakistani security patrol near Sunai Kandau in Barawal Tehsil, Upper Dir, killing six soldiers...
Publications
Second Opinion: The Afghan Endgame and the future of Pakistan-US relations
Date: October 9, 2013
President Zardari's attendance at the NATO Summit in Chicago during May 2012 drew an array of responses from the international and local media. The Guardian reported that U.S. President Barack...
Publications
Second Opinion: The Way Forward for Pakistan’s Foreign Policy
Date: October 9, 2013
With Pakistan's historic general elections held over the weekend, political party manifestos have come under greater scrutiny among voters, policy experts and media commentators. On foreign policy, there are broad...
Publications
Chaophraya Dialogue 11
Date: October 9, 2013
Bangkok, Thailand: Key opinion makers from India and Pakistan, including parliamentarians, former diplomats, military officers, journalists from the print and electronic media, academics and policy experts met in Bangkok for...
Publications
Islamabad Dialogue II Joint Resolution
Date: October 9, 2013
Islamabad Dialogue II Joint Resolution id2 3-4th June, 2012: Key opinion makers from India and Pakistan, including former diplomats, policy experts and practitioners, mediapersons and academics met for the second...
Publications
Delhi Dialogue I Report
Date: October 9, 2013
A great leap forward was needed to break the current impasse in the Indo-Pak bilateral engagement, said participants of the Delhi Dialogue, a bilateral Track-II conference organized by Centre for...
Publications
Chaophraya Dialogue 9 & 10
Date: October 9, 2013
Colombo, Sri Lanka Key opinion makers from India and Pakistan - including former diplomats, military officers, journalists from the print and electronic media, academics and analysts - met at Colombo...
Publications
The Indo-Pak Chaophraya Dialogues 7 & 8
Date: October 9, 2013
16-19th October 2011 Bangkok, Thailand Leading opinion makers from India and Pakistan including parliamentarians, retired diplomats, former military officials, members of the policy and media communities, academics and civil society...
Publications
Annual Reports (2010-2011)
Date: October 9, 2013
The full text of the JI Annual Report 2010 - 2011, outlining the major activities under the Open Democracy and Strategic Security Initiatives is now available here
Publications
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief April 2014 – June 2014
Date: September 11, 2013
This monitoring brief recaps significant developments in Indo-Pak relations between April 2014 and June 2014, including statements, visits, and policy initiatives. It is part of a series of monitoring briefs...
Opinion
Policies Without Direction
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 10, 2013
Anyone in Pakistan who dabbles in the lexicon of urbanomics will be the first to admit one of two things: that cities are like living organisms that need sophisticated delivery...
Conference and Research reports
Apolitical or Depoliticised? Pakistan’s Youth and Politics
Date: June 14, 2013
Pakistan has a long history of student politics and students have played a major role in shaping the directions taken by the state and the government of Pakistan. However, the...
Policy Brief
Promises and Policies – Reviewing Party Manifestos for the 2013 Elections
by: Ahmer Naqvi
Date: May 9, 2013
2013 promises to be a historic year for democracy in Pakistan, as the country marks its first democratic transition between civilian governments in its 66-year history. Unlike the previous elections...
Policy Brief
Economic Policy and Management in Pakistan (2008 to 2013)
by: Safiya Aftab
Date: April 23, 2013
In the five years of the previous government’s tenure, the country has seen five Finance Ministers (FM), four Finance Secretaries (who have had six tenures among them, as one person...
Conference and Research reports
Extremism Watch: Mapping Conflict Trends in Pakistan 2011 – 2012
Date: April 11, 2013
2012 saw previous patterns of violence against religious minorities continue to be repeated, often with greater intensity. This report documents the increase in bombings at Sufi shrines, the rising spate...
Policy Brief
Performance and Prospects of Democracy in Pakistan: Political Scenarios Affecting the Elections 2013
Date: April 1, 2013
It is for the first time in Pakistan’s history that an elected government is completing its term (2008-2013). The Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition was jolted on several occasions, but it...
Opinion
Spitballing the endgame
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 26, 2013
The picture is depressingly familiar: with another warm-weather fighting season upon Afghanistan, efforts to crowd-source an international fall guy for a war gone south is disingenuously pitting public opinion against...
Policy Brief
Grant of MFN Status to India: Possible Impacts
by: Safiya Aftab
Date: March 15, 2013
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in FY2010, the value of Pakistan’s exports to India was $260 million, and the value of imports from India was $1061 million....
Policy Brief
Monitoring Hate Speech on the Internet
by: Annum Sadiq
Date: November 15, 2012
The internet is the world’s largest ungoverned space, where users access information, exchange views and undertake collective action. At least 20 million Pakistanis are online, following a boom in the...
Policy Brief
Another Approach to Madrassa Reforms in Pakistan
by: Syed Mohammad Ali
Date: October 22, 2012
The rise of extremism and intolerance in Pakistan over the decades, not just in the militant periphery but in mainstream society too, has been promoted by a number of factors....
Opinion
Jinnah’s Pakistan cannot be abandoned
by: Raza Rumi
Date: August 11, 2012
This August has been cruel. Haunting images of Sindhi Hindus, essential to the cultural reality and demography of the province, leaving the country [i] shook those who believe that Pakistan belongs...
Policy Brief
Fiscal Planning, Eighteenth Amendment and The Upcoming Budget
by: Hina Shaikh
Date: May 25, 2012
It is that time of the year again, when the Pakistan secretariat becomes the epicenter of budget activity. Each year the budget exercise follows a pre-set routine that is not...
Policy Brief
The Continuing Biases in Our Textbooks
by: Zubeida Mustafa
Date: April 30, 2012
For decades the textbooks used in Pakistan's educational institutions, especially the ones used in the public sector, have drawn serious criticism from experts and concerned citizens. Besides being shoddily produced,...
Extremism Watch: Mapping Conflict trends in Pakistan 2010-2011
Date: February 16, 2012
Pakistan’s problem of extremism is a greater threat to the country than terrorism. This was the consensus during the February 16th launch of Jinnah Institute’s report “˜Extremism Watch: Mapping Conflict trends...
Annual Report (2010-2011)
Date: January 15, 2012
This prompted first the formation of the Open Democracy Initiative. More specifically, the motive for this policy stream arose from a weak state commitment to sustained democracy, made keener by...
Policy Brief
Population in Pakistan: Holding the seams together
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: October 1, 2011
In this Issue: The pressures and potential of a burgeoning population and recommendations to avert future crises. The “population bomb” is no longer a leading cause for concern in the...
Policy Brief
Electoral Reform and Women’s Political Participation
by: Sabina Ansari
Date: August 8, 2011
Overview Pakistan is in urgent need of electoral reform. Currently, there are a number of pressing domestic issues that are seemingly of higher priority for national and international stakeholders, such...
Publications
The Uncertain Future of US Aid to Pakistan
by: Syed Mohammad Ali
Date: August 3, 2011
As tensions between Pakistan and the US continue to fester, and as the US itself teeters on the verge of bankruptcy due to its staggering debt crisis, the future of...
Policy Brief
Pakistan, the United States and the End Game in Afghanistan: Perceptions of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Elite
Date: July 25, 2011
As the so-called “end game” in Afghanistan approaches, the momentum is growing to find an amicable solution to the conflict. The U.S. and other troop contributing countries are committed to...
Eroding the vote banks: IDPs in Karachi
Date: May 31, 2011
In September 2010, the Jinnah Institute carried out a series of focus groups with flood victims living in Karachi’s relief camps. The focus of the study was to assess the...
Conference and Research reports
A Question of Faith: A Report on the Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan
Date: May 22, 2011
Why a report on the status of religious minorities? As part of the Jinnah Institute’s Open Democracy initiative, “A Question of Faith’: A Report on the Status of Religious Minorities...
Publications
Islamabad Dialogue
Date: May 1, 2011
Jinnah Institute is pleased to present a brief report on the discussions that took place at the Indo-Pak Islamabad Dialogue at the Track II level on April 28th and 29th,...
Opinion
Anatomy of a Gang Rape
by: Urooj Zia
Date: April 25, 2011
After almost nine years spanning multiple courts of Pakistan, gang-rape victim Mukhtar Mai’s legal battle against her rapists finally came to an end on 21 April 2011 in the apex...
Policy Brief
India Pakistan Relations: The Way Forward
Date: April 8, 2011
The resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan in 2011 has revived the hope that the two countries would make a renewed effort to resolve their bilateral problems. The dialogue...
Policy Brief
Women in the Media
by: Sabina Ansari
Date: April 7, 2011
This policy brief examines the current representation of women in Pakistan`s national media landscape, which includes the status of women in the media industry, the portrayal of women in mainstream...
Policy Brief
Pakistan’s Eight Great Education Debates
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: April 1, 2011
Pakistan’s education sector confronts a number of serious policy challenges. Jinnah Institute’s Paper “Pakistan’s Eight Great Education Debates” analyzes critical policy debates confronting the education sector and proposes policy solutions...
Policy Brief
Gender Sensitization for Conflict Management and Resolution
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: March 11, 2011
An analysis of the impact of ongoing conflicts and law and order disturbances on Pakistani women; their systematic exclusion from peace building and policy recommendations for a more gender sensitive...
Policy Brief
Making Sense of Violence in Balochistan 2010
by: Salman Zaidi
Date: December 31, 2010
Balochistan has experienced a clear upsurge in violence over the last year, with changing trends in terms of attacks as well as targets. Making sense of this conflict requires parsing...
Policy Brief
Stability in the Nuclear Context: Making South Asians Safe
by: Moeed Yusuf
Date: November 25, 2010
South Asia Advisor to the US Institute of Peace Moeed Yusuf authors this month’s Policy Brief on Nuclear Security, and outlines a plan for working towards strategic stability in the...
Conference and Research reports
Pakistan at Risk: Challenges and Opportunities After the Flood
Date: October 25, 2010
More than three months into the flood crisis aid lifelines for humanitarian needs and rehabilitation remain underfunded, while the governance of the largest disaster the world has seen in many...
Policy Brief
That Colorless Life: Attacking Shrines and the ‘other’ Islam
by: Erum Haider
Date: September 4, 2010
In July 2010, militants attacked the revered Sufi shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore, claiming 41 lives and injuring over 170 people. On October 7th, two suicide bombers attacked...
Opinion
Pakistan: A Transitional Polity
by: Raza Rumi
Date: August 18, 2010
Pakistan’s existentialist crisis is no longer a strictly Pakistani issue. Its potential repercussions have emerged as a cornerstone of global debates on regional stability and international concerns on terrorism and...
Policy Brief
The Mumbai Trial and Related Legal Issues
by: Ahmer Bilal Soofi
Date: May 3, 2010
Two years after the November 26th attacks in Mumbai, the trial of the accused mastermind of the attacks continues in Pakistan. As with any trial, the outcome will not be...
Policy Brief
Stumbling on the “Af-Pak” Border
by: Mosharraf Zaidi
Date: April 30, 2010
NATO helicopters engaged and killed two Pakistani soldiers on September 30th. In response, Pakistan closed the Torkham border crossing, blocking NATO’s access to a vital supply line for its operations...
