THE CITY CIRCLE

Speakers: Clive Stafford Smith, Mohammed Nafees Zakaria and Jonathan Paris

Date: 20 Jan 2012

Time: 18:45 - 20:30 

Venue: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, W1H 4LP

  

Event details: 

9/11 was a key turning point in for the relationship between Pakistan and the US. Having proved itself in the war against the Soviets, Pakistan led at the time by dictator turned President, Pervez Musharraf, joined the "War on Terror" as a key U.S. ally. As part of the relationship, it provided the U.S. a number of military airports and bases for its attack on Afghanistan. In return for its support, Pakistan had sanctions lifted and has received about $10 billion in U.S. aid. 

However 2011 was a tumultuous year in US-Pakistan relations with rising tensions over several high-profile incidents, including the Raymond Davis saga at the start of the year, followed by the some of the deadliest US drone attacks in March. However the real turning point came with the invasion of Pakistani airspace to carry out the operation against Osama bin Laden and more recently the NATO airstrikes that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead. 

With elections on the horizon, Pakistan is under intense pressure from all quarters to define its position going forth. Is this relationship a necessary lifeline or has the time come for Pakistan to reclaim its sovereignty.

 

The speakers:

Clive Stafford Smith is the founder and Director of Reprieve, a UK based charity fighting for the lives of people facing the death penalty and other human rights violations.  After graduating from Columbia Law School in New York, Clive spent 27 years working on death row and has represented over 300 prisoners facing the death penalty in the southern United States. 

In 2001, when the US military base at Guantánamo Bay was established, Clive turned his focus to those detainees. He has helped secure the release of 65 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (including every British prisoner) and still acts for 15 more. This work has further extended to campaigning against secret prisons and rendition.  More recently Clive has taken up the campaign against the drone attacks in Pakistan. He visited Pakistan in November 2011 with Jemima Khan to raise awareness around the illegality of drone warfare.

Mohammed Nafees Zakaria is the Deputy High Commissioner at the Pakistan High Commission in the United Kingdom.  An aeronautical engineer by qualification, Nafees joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1988 and has served in a number of countries including Abu Dhabi, Indonesia and Thailand before joining the High Commission for Pakistan London in April 2009 on his current posting. He represented Pakistan at the emergency conference held following the US-led Nato attacks on Pakistani soldiers in December 2011.

 

 

Jonathan Paris is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council. 

He is a London-based political analyst specializing in South Asia and the Middle East, transatlantic relations and international security.  He is also an Adjunct Fellow at Legatum Institute, Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Buckingham Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, UK.

A Senior Associate Member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, from 2004-2005, he is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law School. 

 

 

Free entrance. All welcome. No reservation needed.

If you have any questions, please contact Sid on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .