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Announcement: Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) Seminar on ‘Understanding Pakistan Today’ in Delhi (4-5 March 2015)

23 February 2015

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PAKISTAN INDIA PEOPLES’ FORUM FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY (India)

INVITES YOU FOR A SEMINAR,

‘UNDERSTANDING PAKISTAN TODAY’
23 Feb 2015

Dear Friends,

Pakistan and particularly internal developments in Pakistan remains an enigma. There is urgent need that we in India develop a better understanding of the complex political social and economic changes taking place in Pakistan, our neighbor. Unfortunately, for particular reasons our academies have poorly developed and under-resourced ‘Pakistan Studies’ and our media have limited direct access. It is a situation in which dangerous myths, prejudices and ill founded assumptions abound.

Four wars, violence in Jammu and Kashmir and reports of intensification of fire-fights on the border have led many of our countrymen to believe that most Pakistanis want permanent war with India. There is also a growing perception that Islamic radicalism has become part of the lives of ordinary people of Pakistan. With the US and NATO forces poised to withdraw from Afghanistan there is fear of outbreak of massive ethnic and religious violence in Afghanistan which would spill over to Pakistan destabilizing the region. The current impasse in the diplomatic and political dialogue in an environment of populist jingoism renders more volatile the management of local tensions and makes all the more important initiatives for deepening non formal people to people exchanges, especially amongst scholars.

There is need to develop more informed analytical frameworks attentive to the changes wrought in Pakistan’s political economy following the neo liberal growth model and the nature of peoples’ struggles for rights - to assert control over resources and redefine the social contract of state and region; of women’s assertion and the ascendancy of conservative forces; the scope for democratic resistance vis a vis the institutions of power in Pakistan’s ‘deep’ state. There is need to take cognizance of Pakistan’s rapidly growing young population, which like that of India is undergoing immense social change. We in India need to develop an analysis sensitive to these social changes.

On behalf of Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), we invite you to participate in a Seminar on ‘Understanding Pakistan Today’ in Delhi at the India International Centre Annex on March 4-5, 2015. The Seminar will bring together more than twenty Senior Pakistani academics and social and political activists and provide an opportunity for participants to engage with the complex dynamics of Pakistan’s contemporary social, economic and political reality which challenges the stereotypical narratives derived from western geo-strategic perspectives and interests.

The programme schedule will be circulated soon.

We look forward to seeing you.

Warm Regards,

Tapan Bose (Founder Member,PIPFPD) | Asha Hans (Co-Chairperson, PIPFPD India) | Anuradha Bhasin (Co-Chairperson, PIPFPD India) | Jatin Desai (General Secretary,PIPFPD India) | Jamal Kidwai (Chairperson, Delhi Chapter, PIPFPD India)