Pakistan conference at Harvard University kicks off

BOSTON: A two-day conference on Pakistan featuring prominent speakers kicked off this Saturday at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA near Boston organised by the Harvard Pakistan Forum (HPF).
The inaugural conference last year, attended by over 250 students, academics and professionals, was themed “Pakistan of the Future” focusing on three crucial facets of Pakistan’s economy: public policy, international investment in the private sector and financial sector support.
The 2015 conference, ‘Rediscovering a Nation’, aims to “reevaluate our understanding of Pakistan’s past, its present, and its potential future” and invites students, academics, practitioners and community members to reassess their assumptions about Pakistan.
The organizers plan to make the conference an annual event.
Ahsan Jamil of the Aman Foundation, one of the main sponsors of the conference, says that the support “is aimed at harnessing the leadership talent of Pakistani students at Harvard, in the pursuit of their careers, to contribute in the development of Pakistan.”
The first keynote speech on Saturday was delivered by Dean and Director of Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Dr. Ishrat Husain, speaking on “Realizing Pakistan’s Economic Potential: Restructuring the Central Bank”.
Other keynote speakers include media entrepreneur Sultana Siddiqui (“Affecting Social Change Through the Arts”), Dr Sania Nishtar (“Health in Pakistan: A New Look”) and well known industrialist and philanthropist Hussain Dawood speaking on “The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Building an Empire”.
Other sessions on Saturday featured a panel discussion on “Entrepreneurship in Pakistan” including speakers like Badar Khushnood and Amir Wain. A discussion on “The Role of the Arts and Literature in a Future Pakistan” featured prominent artists including singers Arooj Aftab and Zeb Bangash, police officer turned novelist Omar Shahid Hamid, and British-Pakistani actor Nadia Manzoor.
Sunday’s sessions include “Pakistan and Afghanistan: Analyzing Foreign Policy and The Future of the Taliban” with Maleeha Lodhi, former ambassador to Pakistan Thomas W. Simmons, Jr., and Hassan Abbas. The “Successfully Impacting Policy Change” panel includes Ahsan Jamil, Samar Minallah Khan and Adil Najam.