Two day international bilateral conference between Afghanistan and Pakistan on the theme Prospects and Challenges in Afghanistan – Pakistan Relations, was held at DSS Department on April 27th 28th. As part of the collaborative agreement between the KAS & DSS Department, the conference was duly organized at DSS Department in collaboration with KAS. The conference was inaugurated by Federal Republic of Germany’s Ambassador to Pakistan His Excellency, Dr. Michael Koch. The conference was coordinated and organized on behalf of the department by Ms. Salma Malik.
The conference comprised of five working sessions which examined key issue areas between the two countries such as, Border Management Issue/ Migration/ Illicit Trafficking/ Criminal Networks, Af-Pak Strategy: Perspectives from Pakistan & Afghanistan, Trade, Transit Trade and Pipeline Politics, Fault lines – Shared Ethnicities, Culture, Histories & Borders: Grounds for Amity & Enmity and lastly Pakistan – Afghanistan Prospects for Bilateral and Regional Cooperation. Eminent scholars and academics from both countries spoke on these issues. The conference had around 45 delegates from Afghanistan, of which nearly 36 were students from the NCPR, Kabul & Heart University. The Heart University students were accompanied by the Chancellor Dr. Mir Gholam Osman Barez Hosaini. A unique event, as never before such a vast number of students had interacted from both countries. The students and faculty gained valuable insights from the conference proceedings as well as the informal interactive sessions and benefited immensely with this exchange.