ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The revelation that the Pakistani woman involved in the San Bernardino massacre was an Islamic State supporter has put a spotlight on the radical group’s reach into this country. But surprisingly, there have been only scattered signs that the group’s tactics or ideology are taking hold in Pakistan, a nation with a history of extremist violence. Tashfeen Malik lived in Pakistan from 2007 to 2013 to attend pharmacy school in the city of Multan. While investigators are still trying to piece together whether she was radicalized here, the news that she sympathized with the Islamic State is sure to rattle Pakistanis who worry about the group’s potential appeal. A year ago, Islamist militants shot and killed 157 students and teachers at an army-run school in Peshawar. And until now, as much of the world struggled to combat the Islamic State, memories of that horrifying day appeared to be helping to shield Pakistan from its influence. Even as the Islamic State gains strength in neighboring Afghanistan, there have been only scattered signs that it is gaining followers in this nuclear-armed country of 180 million. Muhammad Amir Rana, a security analyst based in Islamabad, said the Peshawar school attack, coming as it did amid a general lessening of extremist tendencies in Pakistan, galvanized public support for the army. The military’s successful effort to clear Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt of militant groups that posed a threat to the state has won it additional respect. “The space for violent narratives has shrunk,” Rana said. “You can argue we still have extremists, but in terms of taking that to violence, public support is decreasing.” [One year after it went to war, Pakistan is safer but doubts persist] Rifaat Hussain, a longtime international relations professor, recalls how there was open support in the classroom for the Taliban and other Islamist extremist groups in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But that was 14...

The new development agenda of the world has been set under the rubric of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with expected cost of $3 trillion. With so much of its focus on appreciating the scarcity of world resources and its sustainable utilisation, a natural query that stems is what makes these $3 trillion less scarce? In this regard, the SDGs require an even larger role of foreign aid to developing countries unlike its predecessor the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as its goal entails to “mobilise additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources.” Recently, a free Massive Online Open Course has been started by the World Bank group with the sole attention on how to finance this development prescription. Apparently it appears that advocates for such top-down development programmes have ignored the simple dictum of project planning. However, before the logistics of this programme can be resolved, the question arises on how effective is foreign aid. Politics of foreign aid Foreign aid was meant to be development-motivated. However, it seems that foreign aid flows to Pakistan have been and are a politically motivated process. American aid to Pakistan has led to two major boom periods and both of them coincided with two geo-political events. The first boom of foreign aid to Pakistan resulted in a 640% growth in American foreign assistance during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which began in 1979. Ironically, the aid flows plunged from $542 million in 1990 to $101 million in 1991. The most recent bulge in American generosity was right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when a better share of aid flows were militaristic in nature. As American government decided to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in 2011, the aid funds also followed suit as they plummeted from almost $2 billion in 2011 to $741 million in 2013. But where was the development motivation during the 1990s when US aid flows averaged just a flimsy $39 million as...

Pakistan’s law enforcement infrastructure consists of 35 law enforcement and investigative agencies (LEAs) at the national and sub-national levels. Of these, 27 work under the federal government, six under provincial governments, and two under the administrations in the border regions. Non-police LEAs have a strength of around 200,000, and consist of Rangers, Frontier Cores, Coast Guards and Northern Areas Scouts. The scale of crime, violence and religious militancy has seen a sharp rise in the last two decades or so, but the capacity of the police and other LEAs has not increased. The absence of commensurate political and administrative will to capacitate and strengthen the police and LEAs has undermined their functions. This demoralization is further exacerbated by unending political interference, corruption, human rights violations by the LEAs themselves, and the loss of over 6,000 law-enforcement personnel in the last 12 years alone. The bloodiest of these years was 2006, with 991 deaths. LEA deaths hit a nine year low in 2014, at 243. The situation is improving, especially if we look at the dramatic changes in performance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police under Inspector General Nasir Durrani. But the need of the hour is capacity building and strengthening of law enforcement institutions in Pakistan, and revamping the Police Act of 1861, the Police Rules of 1934, and the Police Order of 2002, as well as the Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan (CrPC). These initiatives will take time, effort, energy, resources and deep reservoirs of patience, before they can be realized, and we can move towards proactive policing, instead of always reacting to criminal activity or terror attacks. The next phase of this revamp is proactive policing, and extensive community engagement. Proactive policing, or community policing, is a hallmark of contemporary law enforcement. In a recent talk in Islamabad, Lieutenant Adeel Rana and Detective Elvis Vukelj, both police officers in...

-  Honourable Chairperson Mr. Fahim Dashti, -  Your Excellency Ambassador Karan Pierce of UK, -  Mr. Abaceen Nasimi, -  Mr. Kawun Kakar, -  Distinguished members of Pakistani and Afghan delegations, -  Ladies and gentlemen, First of all let me thank the organizers for holding this event and providing me with an opportunity to interact with all of you. The civil society meetings play an important role in bringing our two countries closer. The journalists, writers and civil society members can guide people in their own way. If I may quote Ezra Pound, who says “Artists are the antennae of the race”. And to me every creative writer is an artist whether he is a poet or a journalist, whether he writes a poem or a column, whether he speaks one language or the other. It’s they who teach love, who tell positive things, who bring people together. Such intellectuals are our asset because they help humanity when politicians fail, they speak love when others are talking hate. And hence, Ladies and Gentlemen, we pin our hopes on writers, intellectuals and journalists. The media is the fourth pillar but it can guide the first three pillars. It can lead the people. It can make or break. But this important role also brings responsibility. If you highlight 90% positive things, you can serve the interest of the two nations and bring the two countries close. However, if you chose to highlight only 5-10% negative issues, you can poison the minds of people on both sides of the border. Ladies and Gentlemen, Pakistan–Afghanistan relationship is special and unique. The two countries share common history, religion, civilization, culture, language and ethnic bond that is truly people-to-people. The fraternal ties between the two brotherly countries transcend the boundaries of time and are reinforced by our common faith and cultural affinities. The vision of Pakistani leadership hinges on close and cooperative relations with Afghanistan for which we have made serious efforts especially since...

-  Honourable Chairperson Mr. Fahim Dashti, -  Your Excellency Ambassador Karan Pierce of UK, -  Mr. Abaceen Nasimi, -  Mr. Kawun Kakar, -  Distinguished members of Pakistani and Afghan delegations, -  Ladies and gentlemen, First of all let me thank the organizers for holding this event and providing me with an opportunity to interact with all of you. The civil society meetings play an important role in bringing our two countries closer. The journalists, writers and civil society members can guide people in their own way. If I may quote Ezra Pound, who says “Artists are the antennae of the race”. And to me every creative writer is an artist whether he is a poet or a journalist, whether he writes a poem or a column, whether he speaks one language or the other. It’s they who teach love, who tell positive things, who bring people together. Such intellectuals are our asset because they help humanity when politicians fail, they speak love when others are talking hate. And hence, Ladies and Gentlemen, we pin our hopes on writers, intellectuals and journalists. The media is the fourth pillar but it can guide the first three pillars. It can lead the people. It can make or break. But this important role also brings responsibility. If you highlight 90% positive things, you can serve the interest of the two nations and bring the two countries close. However, if you chose to highlight only 5-10% negative issues, you can poison the minds of people on both sides of the border. Ladies and Gentlemen, Pakistan–Afghanistan relationship is special and unique. The two countries share common history, religion, civilization, culture, language and ethnic bond that is truly people-to-people. The fraternal ties between the two brotherly countries transcend the boundaries of time and are reinforced by our common faith and cultural affinities. The vision of Pakistani leadership hinges on close and cooperative relations with Afghanistan for which we have made serious efforts especially since...

-  Honourable Chairperson Mr. Fahim Dashti, -  Your Excellency Ambassador Karan Pierce of UK, -  Mr. Abaceen Nasimi, -  Mr. Kawun Kakar, -  Distinguished members of Pakistani and Afghan delegations, -  Ladies and gentlemen, First of all let me thank the organizers for holding this event and providing me with an opportunity to interact with all of you. The civil society meetings play an important role in bringing our two countries closer. The journalists, writers and civil society members can guide people in their own way. If I may quote Ezra Pound, who says “Artists are the antennae of the race”. And to me every creative writer is an artist whether he is a poet or a journalist, whether he writes a poem or a column, whether he speaks one language or the other. It’s they who teach love, who tell positive things, who bring people together. Such intellectuals are our asset because they help humanity when politicians fail, they speak love when others are talking hate. And hence, Ladies and Gentlemen, we pin our hopes on writers, intellectuals and journalists. The media is the fourth pillar but it can guide the first three pillars. It can lead the people. It can make or break. But this important role also brings responsibility. If you highlight 90% positive things, you can serve the interest of the two nations and bring the two countries close. However, if you chose to highlight only 5-10% negative issues, you can poison the minds of people on both sides of the border. Ladies and Gentlemen, Pakistan–Afghanistan relationship is special and unique. The two countries share common history, religion, civilization, culture, language and ethnic bond that is truly people-to-people. The fraternal ties between the two brotherly countries transcend the boundaries of time and are reinforced by our common faith and cultural affinities. The vision of Pakistani leadership hinges on close and cooperative relations with Afghanistan for which we have made serious efforts especially since...

An Eight member Pakistani delegation comprising members of civil society and media arrived in Kabul on Tuesday December 1st, for the second round of meetings as part of a series of seven Track 1.5/II meetings between Afghan and Pakistani civil society and regional security working groups. This is British funded initiative organized by the Center of Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in partnership with Duran Research & Analysis, who have launched a major Afghanistan-Pakistan Track 1.5/II project Beyond Boundaries, as part of their efforts to help connect civil society stakeholders of both countries, relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Beyond Boundaries comprises two working groups, the Regional Security Group, and Regional Civil Society Group, aimed at facilitating and promoting people-to-people contacts. The working groups on Regional Security and Regional Civil Society will address varied themes that are important in the peace process between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is also meant to build upon existing people to people relations and increase future people-to-people contact. The key objectives of the initiative are: expanding the peace constituency through friendship groups in both countries; and improving support for better Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship through dialogue among the influential stakeholders and informing policy makers through consensus recommendations. The second in a series of seven meetings, the Regional Civil Society Group meeting was inaugurated today December 2nd in Kabul. The arrival of the Pakistani Civil Society and Media delegation marks the resumption of dialogue between non-governmental and political stakeholders from the two countries to the backdrop of a politically difficult and challenging environment. These talks are taking place at a time of increased tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan for most of this year. Afghan and Pakistani government officials met during the Af-Pak Joint Economic Commission...