Conference

March 12, 2013

Rector’s Conference setting the Agenda and the Road Map for the School of Governance and Society – internal conference

Critical Decisions taken for the Evolution of the School

April 12, 2013

Round Table Conference on the School of Governance and Society -  with external resource persons, including the Former Governor Punjab, Mr. Shahid Hamid, former Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Masooma Hasan, Former Pakistan’s Representative to the WTO, Dr. Manzoor Ahmad, former Police Service Officer, Avais Mazahar Hussain.    

Apart from useful experiential insight, one upshot of the event was voluntary assistance offered by Dr. Masuma Hasan in formulation of the vision for the SGS. The vision statement of the SGS is the one worked out in collaboration with her.

April 16,2013

Round Table on Metro Bus Service, Lahore— The brain behind the MBS project, Khawaja Ahmad Hassan, former Chairman of the Lahore Transport Company, and Dr. Ali Murtaza, from the LMBS participated.

A number of UMT faculty and students took part in this Roundtable. A lively Q & A followed the conference.  

January 3, 2014

Round Table Conference on Local Government I—“Local Government: Past, Present, and Future.” Resource Person: Mr. Ahmad Yar Hiraj, Former Nazim Khanewal.

All students and faculty of the School participated. Q & A session followed the presentation by the Nazim.

March 31, 2014

Round Table Conference on Local Government II —“Local Government: Past, Present, and Future.” Resource Person: Mr. Shaigan Sharif Malik Former Federal Secretary and Former Member NRB.

All students and faculty of the School and some other UMT students and officials participated. A Q & A followed the presentation by the Resource Person.

April 22, 2014

First Annual Conference on Governance and Society with the sub-theme: “Human Rights in Pakistan” The Speakers were Mr. I A. Rehman, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Mr. Shaigan Sharif Malik, Member Punjab Public Service Commission, Prof. Muhammad Asif Mian, UMT’s School of Governance and Society, Dr. Taimur Rehman, Assistant Professor (LUMS), Mr. Iftikhar Rasul Shaikh, Resident Director Sarsabz Foundation.

A number of guests as well as students and faculty of UMT participated. A Q & A session followed the talks by various speakers.

12^th July, 2016

International Workshop- Negotiations with Non State Armed Groups"

The University of Kent’s Diplomacy@Kent Beacon Project, the University of Management and Technology in Lahore and the Terrorism Research Initiative – Pakistan Chapter – hosted the one-day workshop at Faletti’s Hotel Lahore.

Workshop was opened by welcome remarks from Mr Rahat ul Ain, Director School of Governance and Society, UMT with Mr Abid Sherwani in chair. Muhammad Feyyaz, moderated the workshop proceedings.

Dr Harmonie Toros and Dr Govinda Clayton of the University’s School of Politics and International Relations, introduced and facilitated two sessions. Dr Toros, a member of the University’s Conflict Analysis Research Group and senior lecturer in International Conflict Analysis, led a session on understandings of legitimacy in negotiations with non-state armed groups. Dr Clayton, Deputy Director of the Conflict Analysis Research Centre, led the session on the characteristics of non-state armed groups on the onset and outcome of negotiations. The Kent team was further supported in facilitating the workshop ‘Role of third parties in negotiations with non-state armed groups’ by Tahir Aziz, head of the South Asia Programme of Conciliation Resources, a world-leading NGO in conflict resolution, which played key roles in negotiations in the Philippines and in Colombia.

The workshop was marked by active engagement of all the participants.  They included many with considerable experience of negotiating with non-state armed groups like Senator Afrasaib Khattak who negotiated with the Pakistan Taliban in 2008 and 2009. He told the conference that the distrust among the parties was so high that, during the negotiations, his counterparts insisted that two members of their team wear vests laden with explosives throughout the negotiation. The workshop participants also included senior military and police officials, counter-terrorism experts, Pakistani academics and university students, namely Maj Gen. (Ret.) Azhar Ali Shah, Additional Inspector General Police Mr Akhtar Shah, – Muhammad Amir Rana etc, and university students.

The salient underpinnings of discussion were later summarized by Muhammad Feyyaz. The workshop concluded with a general agreement that the question was not whether there should be negotiations with non-state armed groups, but how and when one should negotiate with them.