Pakistan

In July, Pakistan was hit by a flood crisis of unexpected dimension. Against this background, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung initiated a dialog with Pakistani and German representatives from politics, academics and the NGO sector on political and economic impacts of the flood and on current needs and challenges.

Heinrich Böll Stiftung supports a joint seminar of Indian and Pakistani experts on "Climate Change and Energy Security: Cooperation between Pakistan and India"

On 11th February 2010, the Heinrich Boell Foundation organised an expert round table discussion to inaugurate the release of their new publication “Pakistan – Reality, Denial and the Complexity of its State”. Two authors who published articles in the book were invited from Pakistan to Berlin to present and discuss their work.

There are factors that persuade Pakistan to fight against the terrorist organisations located on its soil. There is an equal number of factors militating against Pakistan’s campaign to fight terrorism.

Distrust, suspicion and hostility has kept relations between India and Pakistan simmering even in the best of times. In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, the so far made progress in the bilateral peace process came to a complete standstill. An initiative to bring the dialogue back on track was started by civil society, conducting a three day conference in New Delhi, co-organized by Heinrich-Böll-Foundation.

Recently, the power of the Taliban in connection with the attitude of the society was widely discussed, but once again gender and women issues were not highlighted. Durre Ahmed, chairperson and senior research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Gender and Culture in Lahore, about the current situation and development of the gender discourse in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a war zone facing serious threats from militants and terrorists besides a number of other problems and difficulties that urgently demand the establishment of democratic structures as well as rule of law. In the light of the current crisis, high-ranking guests from Pakistan and various German experts discussed structures and deficits of rule of law as well as the current state of affairs.

Although they may not be racing each other, India and Pakistan are in a full-fledged nuclear arms race. Today, they are the world’s only countries that are openly increasing their fissile material stocks.

In 2004 Musharraf’s government was determined to retain and expand its nuclear capabilities. U.S. visits from top officials of the Strategic Plans Division, which is charged with the possession, maintenance, and safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, became routine, and still continue.

US officials and media have exaggerated Pakistan's proximity to collapse. Yet, the speed of Pakistan's decline has surprised many inside in the country who have long warned of the effects of religious extremism. Pakistan's leadership will have to face the extremist threat.