NUST to undertake research project with Hanns Seidel Foundation

Islamabad: NUST Centre for International Peace & Stability (CIPS), and the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), Pakistan, signed a research project agreement at a ceremony here at the university’s main campus on Thursday.

Funded by HSF, the yearlong project is titled, ‘Unravelling the Contextual Realities in Post-Conflict North Waziristan Agency (NWA): Understanding Displacement, Resettlement and Post-Conflict Development.’ As an academic think-tank, CIPS ventures into developing the understandings of contemporary peace and conflict dynamics to emerge with pragmatic and unprecedented perspectives to address the most ruinous issues related to international and national development. This research undertaking is a pioneering effort by an academic research team to explore the ground realities in NWA on the aforementioned thematic areas mentioned in the title of the project. It is focused on post-conflict rehabilitation and development, which is hailed as one of the most recent developments to peace efforts in NWA. Andreas Duerr, acting director HSF, signed the agreement on the behalf of HSF and Dr Nassar Ikram (pro-rector RIC, NUST), Dr Tughral Yamin (associate dean, CIPS) and Dr Muhammad Makki (assistant professor, CIPS) were the signatories representing NUST.

Dr Muhammad Makki and Dr Bakare Najimdeen (HoD, CIPS) are the principal investigators for the research project. A day earlier, NUST CIPS and HSF jointly convened a roundtable titled, “Legal and Socio-cultural Discourse on Human Migration” at NUST’s main campus. The roundtable was the first of a series of three roundtable conferences. Their overarching aim is to produce a blueprint or policy framework that contributes towards devising Pakistan’s migration management strategies.

Davide Terzi, chief of mission, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Pakistan, graced the occasion with his presence. The roundtable brought together speakers with expertise in international and national law, academic backgrounds in migration studies and, in particular, practitioners dealing with refugees in Pakistan. They emphasised on the need to arrive at more pragmatic and implementable steps concerning the various manifestations of human migrants.