Monday, December 28, 2020 at 07:00 PM (PST)
Moderator: Dr Nadeem ul Haq (VC. PIDE)
Panelists/Speakers
Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob (President PILDAT)
Dr. Adnan Rasool (Assistant Professor Political Science- University of Tennessee-Martin )
Ms. Jamila Aslam (Advocate Supreme Court) ,
Ms. Nasim Zehra (Journalist)
There is talk of a Grand National Dialog in Pakistan. In the past, such initiatives have led to APCs that have mainly tried to strengthen political cartels. Reform for changing the way we do business of politics and policy is conveniently never in the agenda.
We at PIDE are proposing a Grand National (intellectual) dialog on reform to parallel and possibly lead the possible GND with ideas.
PIDE questions to our intellectuals will be:
1. Is democracy working as it should?
2. Can the system be improved through reform? What would you suggest!
3. Can the clash of institutions be avoided through reform?
4.Parliament virtually becomes irrelevant after elections! Attendance rates are low and legislative efforts very limited. Debates on bills infrequent. Even the budget is not debated adequately. Competence of parliamentarians to take on complex legislative issues too remains in question.
5. Democrats don’t want local government. Can the constitution be democratic w/o local government? MNAs, MPAs are running after development funds and involved in local admin.
6.The executive thrives in extreme centralization. All regulatory agencies PSEs universities are not granted autonomy.
7.Judiciary often wants to play the role of the executive while commercial and other disputes wait for decades to be sorted out. Precedents clearly are not adhered to and the speed of justice is very slow.
8. 1 election every 5 years enables a government to establish absolute rule leaving opposition and others frantic for a role.
9. Dynastic politics or the control of the constituencies by families has almost developed “rotten boroughs”. What sort of electoral reform can bring in more electoral competition?
There are many issues for intellectuals to take up. Theses should be written on these issues to light our way to a better system.
The usual binaries— civil military and presidential vs parliamentary- prevent the focus from being placed on improving our current system. We would like to spotlight the failings of our current system that derives from colonialism. Can we reform it?
Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy Voters: Democracy Under Inequality in Rural Pakistan
Talk on "The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty"
Breaking Out of Poverty Trap, Nobel Laureate Prof. Abhijeet Banerjee
Talk on "The FEAST Framework for Behavior Change"
Grand National (Intellectual) Dialogue (For Reform) in Pakistan, Day-5, 29-12-2020
Grand National (Intellectual) Dialogue (For Reform) in Pakistan, Day-3, 27-12-2020
Grand National (Intellectual) Dialogue (For Reform) in Pakistan, Day-2
Grand National (Intellectual) Dialogue (For Reform) in Pakistan, Day-1
Exchange rate management of Pakistan: Past, Present and Future
Why has China grown so fast for so long
Pakistan’s Tariff Bias: Anti-Export or Anti-Consumer
Pakistan: The Politics of the Misgoverned
Street Vendors in Islamabad – Voice from the Ground
Revisiting Demographic Dividend
Energy efficiency and conservation in Pakistan.m4a
The C-Section Epidemic in Pakistan.m4a
Doing Ethnography in the Times of COVID-19.m4a
Idleness & Mental Health Problems - Challenge to Pakistan's Demographic Dividend.m4a
Pakistan Railways or Pakistan's Railways - PIDEWEBINAR.m4a
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