Pakistani students at the London School of Economics (LSE) are preparing for another major conference. The LSESU Pakistan Development Society is organising its flagship event, the Future of Pakistan Conference, which will be held over zoom on the 5th and 6th of December. The conference objectives for this year’s edition are:
1. To unpack Pakistan’s development agenda to the international community
2. Connect the brightest students with politicians, policymakers and academics to have candid conversations about developmental and political progress.
3. Enable students to hold the past and present governments to account in respect of manifesto commitments and campaign promises.
This year, the conference will be structured in terms of three panel discussions on Fundamental Rights of citizens, Foreign Policy and the Economy of Pakistan, followed by a keynote address at the end. There will also be a special segment “Hot seat with Zulfiqar Bukhari,” a virtual town hall where a number of students will have the opportunity to question him on the government’s policies. Other confirmed speakers include Pakistan’s civil rights activist and former law minister, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan along with Dr. Shireen Mazari who is the current Federal Minister for Human Rights. Ex. Finance Minister Dr. Miftah Ismail will go head to head with the current Minister of Industries Hammad Azhar over the economy of the country.
The speakers for the foreign policy panel include Mr. Najam Sethi and Hina Rabbani Khar.
The LSESU Pakistan Development Society’s representatives Mustafa Hiraj, Zeerak Rana and Hashir Khan are in agreement that this conference will set a precedent for more potent political discourse, amongst students and decision-makers, for generations to come.
The LSE Pakistan Development society and its events have a history of winning accolades. The 2017 Future of Pakistan conference won the LSE student union’s best conference of the year award, having hosted Ex-Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi amongst other speakers, while the society’s President won the outstanding contribution award in the same year. In 2018, the conference hosted Justice Qazi Faez Isa as the keynote speaker.
The conference took place for the first time in 2016. The current committee comprising Mustafa Hiraj, Zeerak Rana and Hashir Khan has pledged to continue with societal traditions and do everything in their capacity to make this platform a tool to explore solutions to Pakistan’s problems.
Register for this year’s mega event, using this link and check out their social media pages:
Social Media Links:
https://www.facebook.com/lsefopconference