24 - 23
April 2013
Past Event
Elections in Pakistan: Any Hope for a Secular Government?

Elections in Pakistan: Any Hope for a Secular Government?

Past Event
Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. Headquarters
April 24 - 23, 2013
Share:
Default Event Image
24 - 23
April 2013
Past Event

1015 15th Street, N.W., 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Read Transcript
Speakers:
Aparna Pande,

Hudson Research Fellow and Director, Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia

Farahnaz Ispahani,

Former Pakistani parliament member and media advisor to President Asif Ali Zardari

Dr. Mohammad Taqi,

Physician and frequent contributor to the Daily Times

Peter Manikas,

Senior Associate and Regional Director for Asia programs, National Democratic Institute

Elections run by a caretaker government in May will mark the first successful transition from one democratically elected Pakistani government to another without an intervening military coup or implementation of martial law. Given the importance of Pakistan to U.S. security interests -- and record-low approval ratings of the United States in Pakistan -- the results of this election will be closely observed.

With the declining popularity of the secular Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the resurgence of Nawaz Sharif's conservative Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and the rising influence of former cricket hero turned devout Muslim Imran Khan and his party (PTI), the likely results of the election are far from predictable. The Pakistan Election Committee's enforcement of decades-old articles added to the constitution under the military dictator Zia ul-Haq, which allow election officials to disqualify candidates based on knowledge of the Quran, casts a shadow on what should be an election process open to candidates without regard to their religious convictions.

Related Events
See More
03
June 2026
Virtual Event | Hudson Institute
Authoritarian Persistence in Latin America: What Should the US Do?
Featured Speakers:
Elliot Abrams
Daniel Batlle
Getty Images
03
June 2026
Virtual Event | Hudson Institute
Authoritarian Persistence in Latin America: What Should the US Do?

Please join Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle for a conversation with Elliott Abrams, whose leadership on Latin America policy stretches from his service as assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under President Ronald Reagan to his role as special representative for Venezuela in the first Trump administration.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Elliot Abrams
Daniel Batlle
Learn More
04
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Spain’s Latin American Reckoning
Featured Speakers:
Julio Crespo MacLennan
Daniel Batlle
Getty Images
04
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Spain’s Latin American Reckoning

Join Hudson as Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle sits down with Julio Crespo MacLennan, a historian and one of the leading scholars on Spain’s democratic transition and on Europe’s relationship with the wider world. 

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Julio Crespo MacLennan
Daniel Batlle
Learn More
11
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Growing the DIB: A Conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary of War James Mismash
Featured Speakers:
Nadia Schadlow
James Mismash
Getty Images
11
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Growing the DIB: A Conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary of War James Mismash

Please join Hudson Institute for a fireside chat between Hudson Senior Fellow Nadia Schadlow and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Industrial Base Growth and Director of the Office of Small Business Programs James Mismash. 

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Nadia Schadlow
James Mismash
Learn More
12
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Winning the Innovation Competition
Featured Speakers:
Bryan Clark
Dan Patt
Emil Michael
DVIDS
12
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Winning the Innovation Competition

Please join Hudson Institute Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt for a conversation with Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael about the Department of War’s efforts to bring AI to the battlefield and implement an innovation strategy that makes the most of America’s commercial and government research sectors. 

DVIDS
Featured Speakers:
Bryan Clark
Dan Patt
Emil Michael
Learn More
See More
Related Research
See More
See More