JI

Publications

OPINION

Financing Climate Action

by:  Sherry Rehman

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

A small anecdote sums up the cognitive confusion (more…)
OPINION

The Season of Climate Migrants

by:  Saif Jamali

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...
OPINION

Preserving Gains: The Fate of Afghan Women

by:  Meera Nadeem & Abdulla Wasti

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Executive Summary Pakistan’s high vulnerability to climate change necessitates an urgent response. (more…)
Opinion

The Eastern Question

by:  Fahd Humayun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...
Opinion

After India’s Skirmish with China, Is Pakistan Next?

by:  Fahd Humayun

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Reports (2013-2018)

  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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘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

‘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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...
Opinion

Subcontinental Drift

by:  Fahd Humayun

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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​

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

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

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

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​

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​

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

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

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​

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...
Opinion

11 August: Jinnah’s Promise Betrayed

by:  Yasser Latif Hamdani

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

  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

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

  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

  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

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

  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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

  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

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

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

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

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

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

  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

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?

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  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

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

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

  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

  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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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’

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...
Policy Brief

Population in Pakistan: Holding the seams together

by:  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 in the...
Policy Brief

Electoral Reform and Women’s Political Participation

by:  Sabina Ansari

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...