JI

Policy Briefs

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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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

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...
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...
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....
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...