Conference on building Pakistan-Sri Lanka think tank collaboration

Islamabad : Noordeen Mohamed Shaheid, high commissioner of Sri Lanka, said that Sri Lanka and Pakistan had defeated terrorism on their soils and both were grappling with financial crises and devaluations of their currencies owing to accumulation of excessive amounts of foreign debt.

Mr Shaheid was speaking at a roundtable on ‘Building Pakistan-Sri Lanka think tank’ collaboration organised by Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) here Monday.

Mr Shaheid started his talk by thanking Pakistan for its support in defeating the scourge of terrorism in Sri Lanka. He said that Sri Lanka was one of the very few countries of the world that had the unique distinction of defeating terrorism.

Mr Shaheid said that although terrorist attacks were carried out by an Islamist terrorist group in April, the situation was soon brought under control by the Sri Lankan authorities. He was of the view that Pakistan and Sri Lanka had a lot in common. Expressing his views on think-tank collaboration between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he underscored the importance of research collaboration in South Asia and added that think tanks were greatly contributing to the development of their countries and that their independence needed to be ensured. He further added that the research reports of think tanks produced after painstaking research by the think tanks needed to be taken up by policymakers.

He said that there was already think-tank collaboration between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He shared that the Sustainable Development Policy Institute was collaborating with the Institute of Policy Studies in Sri Lanka, while the Centre for Gulf and Strategic Studies was collaborating with Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations in Sri Lanka.

Mr Shaheid shared that Sri Lankan think tanks like the Institute of Policy Studies, the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations, and the Centre for Strategic Studies were ranked among the top influential think tanks of South Asia. He said that the research produced at IRS was commendable. He said that although the institute was funded by the government, it was independent in its research. He called for research collaboration between IRS and Sri Lankan think-tanks on how to make best use of mega international connectivity projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who chaired the session, said that he had found the Western think-tanks to be political rather than apolitical. He was of the view that all major Western think tanks had political leanings toward one political party or the other. He further observed that most of the Western think tanks were not independent of their governments either. As an example, he stated that when the US decided to attack Iraq, not a single think-tank in the US opposed the plan. He added that Western think tanks were also influenced by their donors.

Dr Rukhsana Qamber, president IRS, urged Pakistanis to value the freedoms that they enjoyed in Pakistan, including their freedoms to freely express their opinions. She said that she was serving as the head of IRS for one year and never had the government tried to influence what IRS was publishing.

In the general discussion that followed, the advanced state of Sri Lankan education system with almost 100% literacy was appreciated. Mr Shaheid was also asked about the common features of the political systems of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both inherited from the British. In response, he appreciated the fact that Pakistan had well-preserved Buddhist sites, which were a testament to its dedication toward protection of minority religions and their religious sites. He called for using these sites for promotion of greater religious tourism in the country. He added that the potential for religious tourism in Pakistan was vast keeping in view of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s liberal policy of opening up the country’s visa policy for tourists.