Pakistan Archive

Pakistan has been hit by one of the worst natural disasters in its history as massive floods inundated large parts of its territory. Like many international organizations, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s regional office in Pakistan along with its partner local organizations immediately responded to the challenge to help Pakistanis cope up with the disastrous humanitarian situation caused by floods. Our organization has responded in two phases, supported by the German Ministry of Development Cooperation.

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.

In nuclear-armed Pakistan, everyday cities plunge into darkness and factories grind to a halt for several hours as the electricity goes out. Some Pakistanis look towards importing nuclear reactors as a solution.

Born in 1960 in Peshawar, the Northwestern Frontier Province of Pakistan, Imtiaz Gul has covered Afghanistan/Tribal Areas/Kashmir militancy extensively since 1988 and traveled the length and breadth of the mentioned areas. Gul's Afghanistan travels brought him in contact with a number of Pakistani officials from different departments and agencies to trace and analyze Pakistan's involvement with different Afghan factions.

On April 8th, US-President Obama signed an agreement on nuclear missile reduction with the Russian President Medvedev. The reduction of the two largest nuclear arsenals is an important step to the future success of a global non-proliferation regime. The agreement comes in time for the US Nuclear Summit and upon the eve of the UN negotiations on the future of the non-proliferation treaty.

This launching of the study organized by Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Pakistan, is the first activity of the Working Series on Women Religion and Politics. The other activity includes national and international conferences which shall be held in the year 2010-11. However, publications are also envisioned in order to successfully accomplish the aim of the working series.

Based on the analysis of Pakistan’s current environmental and economic state, the paper outlines concrete challenges caused by climate change. Pakistan, as a developing country, has higher incidences of poverty and the country is facing a number of problems.

There are factors that persuade Pakistan to fight against the terrorist organizations located on its soil. There are equally a number of factors militating against Pakistan’s campaign to fight terrorism. Together, these two contradictory compulsions characterize the current scene. Because of this fault-line of intent, the determination to fight against terror is constantly undermined, leading at times to internal rifts in the institutions that decide and implement anti-terror strategies.

In order to introduce and discuss the latest publication: “Pakistan - Reality, Denial and the Complexity of its State” the HBS Head Office in Berlin organized an Expert’s Round Table.

The American-led NATO mission in Afghanistan began with the stated objective of denying Al Qaeda a safe haven. President Barack Obama restated that in his speech at West Point earlier this month that the overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and its allies in the future. “We are in Afghanistan to prevent cancer from once again spreading through that country. But this same cancer has also taken root in the border region of Pakistan.”