On August 23, PIPS organized “Pakistan Saga Awards 2019” ceremony in Islamabad, presenting awards to some of the best video packages on pluralism, diversity, and rights. The ceremony was attended by journalists, academics and diplomats. Awards were given to top five videos, made in the last one year. A total of 120 video packages, each … Read more
Pakistan is a young country, where majority of the population are below the age of 30 years. And yet, youth are underrepresented in various initiatives led by state and civil society. The situation is dire with youngsters from rural areas, women, or ethnic or religious minorities. These thoughts came at the report launch of “Youth … Read more
Islamabad PR/24 July 2019 Pakistan is a young country, where majority of its population are below the age of 30 years. And yet, youth are underrepresented in various initiatives led by state and civil society. The situation is dire with youngsters from rural areas, women, or ethnic or religious minorities. These thoughts came at the … Read more
Education reforms can be taken forward if the disconnect among teachers, students, and policy makers is done away with. At present, different nodes of education setup has different expectations, and even different set of ideas. Opportunities should be given that they exchange their ideas with each other, to suggest practical remedies. These were some of … Read more
“Teachers can practice and preach empathy to promote tolerance” Islamabad PR/3 July 2019 Teachers can show the seeds of tolerance in society, if they practice and preach the values of empathy – putting one-self in another’s shoes. Empathy can open them to divergent understanding of same problem, producing a society that is more tolerant of … Read more
Social cohesion remains a distant dream in the face of widening inequality. People are forced to take sides with one group, strengthening their group identity. After all, they think, it is because of who they are that they are ignored. But this can be turned around: To overcome such thinking, the state should take serious … Read more
June 21, 2019 PR/Islamabad While there is a lot of talk about social cohesion, it often fails because of injustices emanating from inequality in the country. Social injustices force people to resort to their group-based identities, who think they are being disliked and others are liked merely because of who they are. To overcome such … Read more
People think their lives are greatly shaped by the group they belong to, whether ethnicity, sect, religion, among others Individual rights, although ignored, are being demanded too, manifested in freedom of expression and women rights movement Constitutional safeguards needed to mainstream those on the fringe in particular GB, AJK, persons living with disabilities, and religious … Read more
PR/23 May 2019 To overcome differences, we need to engage in dialogue with each other, the sole purpose of which is to understand each other’s point of view. Unfortunately, there is a tendency of people resorting to monologues, in which people “talk at” each other, rather than “talk to” each other. These thoughts came in … Read more
PR/Islamabad 9 May 2019 To move forward as a country there is need for holding dialogues on pressing national issues, such as center-province relations, role of religion, the country’s foreign policy – among the most relevant stakeholders, who otherwise do not interact with each other. Without such dialogues, our debates and answers are no less … Read more