Venue: Conference Hall, CDPR

Date: 14th April 2017, Friday

Time: 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm

Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR) hosted its ninth Lahore Policy Exchange talk on “Understanding Contemporary Pakistan through History: A Conversation with Ayesha Jalal.” History provides us with a trove of insight into the present and lessons to help guide our future. We often do not appreciate the extent to which historical decisions and circumstances have shaped the challenges Pakistan faces today: Crises within institutions, political shifts, tensions with neighbouring countries, new economic realities and religious strife to name a few. To explore the historical underpinnings of these critical issues and more, Ali Cheema, Program Director, Center for Economic Research in Pakistan, hosted a discussion with the Tufts University Mary Richardson Professor of History, Ayesha Jalal. A leading historian of Pakistan and South Asia, Dr. Jalal has written seminal works navigating the historical tensions that defined modern politics and society in Pakistan. Dr. Ijaz Nabi, Chairman of the Board of Governor, CDPR, offered questions and commentary through a video link. Policy exchange dialogue took place at the end, when the question and answer session took place amongst the audience and the presenters.