Pakistan

Islamabad (18 June, 2014): Sustainable power generation is a top priority of the current government of Pakistan to address the energy crisis in the long run. This was stated by Prof. Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning and Development at the International Wind Energy Conference organized by World Wind Energy Association (WWEA), Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) and Heinrich Boll Stiftung Pakistan in Islamabad.

The Round table discussion was organized with the students of Gilgit Baltistan on 27th May 2014 at Heinrich Boll Stiftung liaison Office in Lahore. This event was arranged by the Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBF) in collaboration with the Interactive Resource Centre (IRC) and Mountain Youth Resources & Social Welfare Organization (MYRO). A large number of youth from Gilgit Baltistan with different educational and political backgrounds participated in the discussion. Participants also included Mr. Didar Ali, Chairman Gilgit Baltistan Youth Council (GBYC) along with the executive committee of GBYC.

Women parliamentarians from all political parties under the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) adopted a historic declaration to protect and preserve the provisions of reserved seats for women in the national assembly, senate and the provincial assemblies in Pakistan. It also urges upon the political parties to select women on direct elections and to increase their representation on leadership positions within political parties and other political forums.

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.

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.

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.

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.