The Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) conducted its fifth Pak-Afghan Youth Dialogue under its Afghan Studies Center initiative on Tuesday, October 31, 2017, as part of its ongoing series of monthly dialogues aimed at enhancing people to people contact between the youth of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The theme of the dialogue was “Education as a connector for peace in Pak-Afghan Relations”. The dialogue was attended by 31 participants – 13 Afghans and 18 Pakistanis, comprising students enrolled in higher education programs in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar as well as young activists and professionals.

Executive Director Mr. Imtiaz Gul welcomed all and introduced CRSS as a civil society initiative, committed to the cause of independent research and non-partisan advocacy.  Mr. Aized Ali, Project Director, moderated the session and introduced the participants to CRSS’ Track 1.5/II project Beyond Boundaries aimed at improving  bilateral relations between the two neighbors by engaging with influential stakeholders in both groups as well as both the governments and enhancing and fostering people to people contact. He also apprised them of the CRSS initiative of Afghan Studies Center, which he explained had been a product of the Track 1.5/II meetings held over the last two years by CRSS and its Afghan counterparts.

Mr. Wasim S. Hashmi Syed, the Advisor Human Resource Development (HRD), Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan was the chief guest.  Mr. Hashmi is an engineer by profession and started his professional career at Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore in 1986. Five years later he left for United States for higher studies and enrolled in MS leading to PhD program in Industrial Engineering at University of Louisville. In 2003, he moved back to Pakistan and joined the Higher Education Commission under the supervision of Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, who was Chairman HEC at that time. Currently Mr. Hashmi is supervising around 47 projects of HEC and bringing a remarkable change in higher education of Pakistan. One of his major initiatives is to strengthen the education diplomacy with Afghanistan for better relations between the two neighbors.

Mr. Hashmi in his opening remarks welcomed the young Afghan and Pakistani participants and emphasized that both Afghanistan and Pakistan have been in need of such ingenious young minds that can push for positive change. Speaking on the themes he said, education diplomacy is the one of the contemporary approaches in modern diplomacy. It can play an effective role to bring the two nations closer. Mr. Hashmi told the participants that he has been frequently travelling to Afghanistan for educational collaboration and has always been welcomed warmly there. Afghanistan commends the model of HEC in Pakistan and wants to install the same in Afghanistan with the help of Pakistani experts. In 2016, HEC launched Allama Iqbal Scholarships for the Afghan Students which includes under-graduate studies, and also post graduate studies i.e. Masters and PhDs. He told the participants that 750 scholarships will be awarded this year; 600 for under graduate studies. Remaining scholarships of Masters and PhDs will be awarded to faculty members on the request of Ministry of Education at Kabul, to cater to their faculty’s deficiencies. Ministry of Education, Afghanistan also requested for 100 scholarships exclusively for females, region wise, to which HEC has agreed. HEC is also in the process of laying ground work for some more initiatives with Afghanistan, which include: sending Pakistani resource persons to Afghanistan for training Afghan faculty there, Afghan medical teams visiting Pakistan for training purposes, offering additional short certificate courses with very low tuition fee or no fee at all. HEC also intends to celebrate “Iqbal Day” in Afghanistan, sometime in November this year, as Iqbal – the national poet of Pakistan is widely respected across Afghanistan.

During the question answer session, the Afghan students raised many issues, few of which included the visa policy and ambiguity regarding their status as foreign or local students, creating hurdles in acquiring certain privileges. HEC Advisor responded to the questions positively and told the participants that HEC has already requested respective authorities to at least grant one year multiple entry visa to Afghan students so that their studies may not be disturbed. Responding to the second question, Mr. Hashmi said that HEC intend to give Afghan students special status, so that they will not have to pay higher fee and higher hostel charges; which still is work in progress. Concluding the dialogue, Mr. Hashmi shook hand with all the participants as a sign of goodwill, which was much appreciated and cherished by the all participants.

Sarfaraz Ahmed Orakzai from Pakistan was nominated as Pak-Afghan Youth Ambassador and awarded a shield by Mr. Aized Ali. In the previous dialogue, Ms. Syeda Rahimi from Afghanistan was nominated as the Youth Ambassador. Students from both sides urged the need for more people to people contact, especially the youth via educational platforms to better understand each other. Participants of the dialogue praised the efforts of CRSS and stated that such dialogues and platforms would enable young Afghans and Pakistanis to create youth as a pressure group to mobilize for positive relations between the two countries.