On 17 June 2022, CCLS hosted a small cohort of like-minded people at the Islamabad Club. Our friends in Islamabad; Ms. Naghmana Hashmi, Former Ambassador of Pakistan to the EU & China; Mr. Masood Khalid, the longest-serving Ambassador of Pakistan to China; Mr. Mustafa Hyder Sayed, Executive Director at the Pakistan-China Institute; Dr. Tahir Mumtaz Awan, Director at the China Study Centre in COMSATS; and Mr. Shakeel Ramay, Chief Executive Officer of the Asian Institute of Eco-Civilization, Research and Development.
The policy roundtable deliberated on a number of issues surrounding the regional politics and economics of South Asia. The efforts of India to contain the rise of China, the increasing role of China in the Chabahar Port (Iran), the trade routes that connect China with Iran through Afghanistan, and the integral importance of the Central Asian Countries vis a vis CPEC & the larger BRI, were some of the areas of interest and discussion. Additionally, the experts conversed on the key importance of encouraging an academia - thinktank - bureaucracy nexus in Pakistan to effectively enhance the strategic policy-making structure of the country.
The policy roundtable received much appreciation by the attending members and they applauded the effort of CCLS & LUMS to encourage informal engagements that highlight issues of pivotal importance. They expressed that by outlining pertinent areas of policy injections, the movers and shakers of the society can have the requisite knowledge to take effective steps forward.
