KARACHI: Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) is holding a conference on Peace in South Asia: Opportunities and Challenges on 15 and 16 November 2017 here at a local hotel.

Scholars from leading think tanks, academia and diplomats belonging to UK, Sweden, USA  and the countries of the South Asian region, are participating in this Conference.

The conference has been divided into two segments. Opportunities: physical, economic and technological inter-connectivity, trade links and corridors, people-to-people contacts, informal diplomacy, cultural exchanges, networking on social and women’s issues. And Challenges: Reducing regional tensions, settling inter-state disputes, achieving nuclear security, combating terrorism, resolving water-related problems, countering threats from climate change.

This conference is being held to mark PIIA’s 70th anniversary, which was established in 1947 as a non-official, non-party and non-profit-making body dedicated to study and research in international relations, economics and jurisprudence. It is the oldest society of academic excellence in South Asia.

Some prominent speakers in the conference include Chairman Senate of Pakistan, Mian Raza Rabbani; Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed; ex-Senator Javed Jabbar; Dr Ishrat Hussain, former Governor State Bank of Pakistan; Illango Patchamuthu, Country Director for Pakistan - World Bank; Shoaib A Siddiqui, Secretary, Planning Commission; Aftab Nabi, former Director General, National Police Bureau, Islamabad; Lt-Gen Talat Masood (retd); Lt Gen Tariq Khan (retd), former IG, FC and Commander of Strike Corps, Mangla; Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel; Ambassador Riaz Khokhar; Ambassador Najmuddin Shaikh; Ambassador Aziz Ahmed Khan; and Ambassador Munir Akram besides many foreign speakers.—PR