Policy Research Papers
March 2016
A series of focus group and individual discussions with representatives of civil society, security experts and analysts, former government officials, lawmakers and youth, were held in Islamabad in March 2016, facilitated by the Jinnah Institute Islamabad. With the upcoming closure of the Sources of Tension in Afghanistan & Pakistan: A Regional Perspective
policy research project in autumn 2016, the aim was to provide policymakers in Europe with the feedback and inputs from Pakistan that will assist them to shape their policies towards the country, together with those towards Afghanistan, for the coming decade.
The discussions centred around three main questions:
• Expectations for addressing the sources of tension in Pakistan that also have implications for the region (governance, socio-economic issues, ethnicity and sectarianism, conflict, militancy, radicalisation)
• Expectations from Europe, the West, and the five involved regional powers (Russia, China, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia)
• Whether and how events in 2015 have influenced these sets of expectations
