LAHORE, Pakistan: The Center for Chinese Legal Studies (CCLS) at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law in, LUMS in collaboration with the Pakistan-China Institute organised a Virtual Conference on ‘Poverty Alleviation, COVID-19 and CPEC – Connecting the Dots’.
Experts for the panel discussion included the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar, the Chairman Foreign Affairs Committee in Senate of Pakistan Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, the former Ambassador of Pakistan to China Masood Khalid, Professor at Peking University in China Xia Qingjie, the Executive Director at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Dr. Vaqar Ahmed, and Professor at Faculty of Law at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law in LUMS Uzair J. Kayani.
The Director at the CCLS Professor Sikander Ahmed Shah served as the moderator, and he engaged the panel in an insightful conversation on Pakistan’s existing Poverty Alleviation Strategy, the impact of COVID-19 on Pakistan’s deteriorating income poverty, and CPEC’s role vis-à-vis alleviating poverty in the country.
The Conference also explored the Poverty Alleviation Strategy of China in an attempt to understand how Pakistan may learn from and employ China’s best practices.
Professor Sikander Ahmad Shah and Professor Uzair Kayani also extended their pro bono support to Dr. Sania Nishtar on all matters of policy-making pertaining to poverty reduction, relief, and alleviation in their collective pursuit to establish a welfare system in Pakistan.
The Executive Director at Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) Mustafa Hyder Sayed presented his closing remarks for the Conference and urged the audience to also focus their energies on the small and medium enterprises that enhance the vocational potential of our Country.
The Conference received an active and warm feedback from the participants and served as a constructive discourse of Pakistan in its effort towards welfare reform, strong institutional governance, and fighting the poverty trap.
