Extremism, loyalty, bravery, dogged idealism, political chaos – all rolled into one country’s past, present and future, Pakistan is unquestionably home to a spectrum of contradictions: a country pulled in multiple directions by its politics, ethnic conflicts and identity crises and whose future prospects are constantly a topic of great speculation.
October 8, 2020
Time:
4:00 pm
Facebook Live
Join us for the forty-eighth session of LUMS Live: The Contradictions of Pakistan - The Future of Democracy, State and Identity. The distinguished panelists for the discussion include Mr. Declan Walsh, Ms. Jugnu Mohsin and Ms. Nasim Zehra.
Date: Thursday, October 8, 2020
Time: 4:00 pm (PST)
Moderated by Mehreen Zahra-Malik, the session will be broadcast live via the LUMS Facebook page. Please click here to listen to our panelists discuss the contradictions that run across the political and social fabric of the country.
During the session, please use the live stream's comments bar to ask questions or email them at ask@lums.edu.pk.
After the session, kindly share your feedback and suggest future topics for discussion/guests here.
Join us for this important conversation!
Profiles of Panelists
Declan Walsh - Journalist
Mr. Walsh is the Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times, covering Egypt and the Middle East. Prior to that, he covered Pakistan for 11 years. He has reported from over thirty countries, covering conflict, politics, cultural and social change. Born in Ireland, he started his career at The Sunday Business Post in Dublin. He moved to Kenya in 1999, covering sub-Saharan Africa, then in 2004 moved to Islamabad to cover Pakistan and Afghanistan for The Guardian. He later joined The New York Times and in 2013 was expelled from Pakistan on account of what the authorities termed "undesirable activities". Since then he has covered the wars in Libya, Yemen and Syria, the revolution in Sudan and repression in Egypt. In 2016, he travelled across the United States to write a column on the presidential election. In 2017, he won a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his work in Yemen. His writing has also been published in Granta magazine. He is the author of the recently published book, The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State. He is returning to Kenya later this month to take up a position as Chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times.
Jugnu Mohsin – Journalist
Ms. Mohsin was educated at Cambridge University where she received an MA in Law. She and her husband Najam Sethi co-founded The Friday Times (1989), weekly Aaj Kal (1993), Daily Times (2001), Daily Aaj Kal (2003) and Good Times magazine (2006). Ms. Mohsin writes a weekly satirical column for The Friday Times. She has worked as a programme host for GEO News (GEO Shan Say, Jugnu & Khabarnaak), ARY (Jugnu Ki Roshni) and PTV (Hawa Kay Naam & Tum Yaad Aye). Occasionally, she still comments on current affairs for various channels. Ms. Mohsin is the recipient of the Press Freedom Award (Committee to Protect Journalists, New York, 2000) and Sitara-e-Imtiaz (2013). In 2008, she became a trustee of the Mohsin Trust, which works in health and education in Shergarh, district Okara. In 2015, she successfully put up a panel of grass roots political and social workers as independents in the Local Bodies Elections. In 2017, Ms. Mohsin and her sister Moni Mohsin launched the Daud Bandagi Development Trust for women’s empowerment. In 2018, Jugnu Mohsin contested the general elections as an independent candidate in PP 184, Okara and won. In 2019, Ms. Mohsin and Najam Sethi launched a YouTube channel called “WATCHna” for which Mohsin does a cultural/historical program called Jugnu Ka Des.
Nasim Zehra – National Security Specialist and Journalist
Ms. Zehra is a national security specialist, a journalist, and an author. As a columnist, television host, and teacher, with extensive experience in the development field, she writes and lectures widely on national security and global politics. Ms. Zehra holds an MBA from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and a Master’s degree in Law & Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA. She has been a Fellow of the Harvard University Asia Centre, on the Visiting Faculty of the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad; National University of Science and Technology; and at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Zehra served in an honorary capacity in the following committees/positions: the President’s Advisory Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Security (2001), member of Kashmir Committee (2002) and Pakistan ‘s Special Envoy on UNSC reforms for Canada & Latin America (2005).
Ms. Mehreen Zahra-Malik - Journalist
Ms. Zahra-Malik is Senior Editor for Arab News, one of the largest English-language newspapers in the Middle East. She has previously served as Pakistan correspondent for Reuters, Deputy Editor at The News, and as the News Editor of The Friday Times. Her reportage has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, The New Republic, The Hindu, Indian Express, Tehelka, Dawn, Express Tribune, Daily Times, The Friday Times and others. She has an MA in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
