Discussion with Former Ambassador Farukh Amil on Intellectual Property & Innovation He highlighted the role of patents, trademarks, copyrights and other legal methods of securing intellectual property for innovation. Ambassador Amil recounted anecdotes about popular Pakistani and American artists and how they benefited from using such legal methods of securing their intellectual property. He further emphasized the contributions of IP rights in boosting innovation and economic development in countries such as the US, and encouraged students to learn from their examples in their own future creative and business endeavors. This session helped equip the students with relevant and crucial practical knowledge for securing ownership of their intellectual property and encouraging innovation.
Roundtable Discussion on Pakistan-India Relations The panel featured twenty esteemed panelists representing academia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Defense sector. The session was inaugurated by Ambassador Johar Saleem (President IRS), Ambassador Mansoor Ahmad Khan (Director BCPR) and Dr. Moeed Yusuf, Former National Security Advisor and Vice Chancellor, BNU. Distinguished keynote speakers included Senator Mushahid Hussain, Khurram Dastagir, Ambassador Tehmina Janjua, Ambassador Jehangir Ashraf Qazi, and General Nasir Khan Janjua. The session also featured insightful remarks from Senator Sherry Rehman. The discussion was comprehensive and thought-provoking, offering a wide range of perspectives on the complexities and possibilities of Pakistan-India relations. The engaging dialogue left the distinguished audience with much to reflect upon, highlighting the importance of continued efforts towards constructive engagement between the two nations.
Panel Discussion on Managing Infrastructure and Energy Corridors The panelists also shed light upon the economic, environmental, and political dimensions of CPEC. Importantly, panelists discussed the substance and content of current Pakistan-US relations and whether American interests in green energy and climate change factor into its foreign policy. Speakers included Professor Hong Stella Zhang, a China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School; Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director General of Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad and former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States; Ms. Imrana Tiwana, Head of Initiative for Climate change and Environmental Sustainability at BNU; Dr. Syed Mohammad Ali, who is a non-Resident Faculty/Visiting Fellow at BNU, and teaches graduate courses at the Advanced Academic Programs at Johns Hopkins University; Ambassador Hassan Raza, a diplomat and former Special Secretary at Pakistan's Foreign Office; and Mr. Ghammaz Husnain, Assistant Professor at RHSA and Coordinator of CURE, the Centre for Urban and Rural Environments.
Panel Discussion: Mega Projects & Climate Change – BRI and B3W The event was moderated by Ghammaz H. Sandhu, Assistant Professor RHSA and Coordinator of CURE, the Centre for Urban and Rural Environments, with opening remarks by Dr. Yinghao He from the Institute of Belt and Road & Global Governance, Fudan University. The panelists included Michael Kugelman, Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C; Ambassador Mansoor Ahmad Khan, Head of the Initiative on Pakistan’s Place in the World at the BNU Centre for Policy Research (BCPR); Dr. Atif Bilal, Associate Professor at the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore as a specialist in Sustainable Urban Development and Urban Transport Planning; and M. Omar Farooq, Head of Department of RHSA. In her opening remarks, Dr. He set the tone for the discussion by stressing upon the urgency of the questions pertaining to climate change and called attention to the fact that climate change knows no borders and affects everyone, thus it requires cooperation and immediate attention. Two over-arching themes emerged from this discussion, which featured enthusiastic participation from the students and academics in the audience. One line of discussion focused on the effects of the BRI and B3W on climate change and the environment as both projects involve massive infrastructural development. The second line of discussion grappled with the political dimensions of the two mega-projects. Panelists addressed the larger question of the BRI and B3W as avenues of Chinese and American regional competition. Mr. Kugelman emphasized that the US was initially supportive of the BRI and hoped to collaborate with China and Pakistan in the project, however the US official perspective has changed to one of competition with Chinese involvement in Pakistan under the BRI. The audience also brought up crucial questions about climate justice, questioning whether it was fair that countries like Pakistan are among the most affected by climate change despite being minor contributors to global environmental degradation, and that Pakistan is dealing with the negative environmental consequences of the industrialization of developed countries such as the US. The event also featured the launch and distribution of the Policy Paper on “Setting Future Agenda of Pakistan-US Relations Around Trade, Investment and Climate Change,” written by Ambassador Mansoor Ahmad Khan at the BCPR under the American Studies Initiative (ASI). The copies of the Paper are also being dispatched to senior officials, leading think-tanks and senior journalists covering foreign policy subjects in print and electronic media.
