On 23 April 2004, the IISS hosted a Special Round Table Discussion with Dr Moonis Ahmar, Professor of International Relations, Karachi University and Director of the Programme on Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, Pakistan.
Educated at Quaid-e-Azam and Karachi Universities, Dr Ahmar specialises in conflict resolution and confidence-building issues in South Asia. After a stint at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Karachi, he was appointed to an academic post at Karachi University in 1984. He is also the Director of the successful Programme on Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the University, which he established in April 2000. He has held visiting appointments at Universities and think tanks in the US, UK and Bangladesh. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics. Dr Ahmar has written extensively on conflict resolution and regional security. His most recent books include ‘The Paradigms of Conflict Resolution in South Asia’ (ed.) (2003), and ‘The Challenge of Confidence-Building in South Asia’ (ed.) (2001).
At the IISS, Dr Ahmar gave a presentation on 'Pakistan's Internal Security Concerns’, focusing on non-traditional security concerns. Pakistan's internal security situation is characterised by conflict, crisis, chaos, conspiracy, confusion, credibility and compromise. Even though the Pakistani government talks about a booming economy, the benefits of this upturn continue to be distributed unevenly. Dr Ahmar was also critical about the success of democratic reforms, arguing that there are still certain authoritarian tendencies that pull the country in a different direction.
Dr Ahmar emphasised that the road to stability in Pakistan passes through a better understanding and management of people’s security concerns. In his presentation Dr Ahmar identified four main areas of concern: rise of various non-state actors, issues of ethnicity and sectarian and political divide, growing tension between the government and anti-status quo forces on the issues of water and uneven economic development, and lack of a viable political process. The Pakistani government has failed on three main fronts: cracking down on the flourishing mafia, abolishing some of the dividing lines in society, and accommodating basic needs of the local people. Dr Ahmar pointed out that there needs to be a rethinking of the role of religion in politics.
