Jammu,July 15 (Scoop News) -Senior Journalist and Policy Analyst Zafar Choudhary has been selected as a Fellow for the Asia Society’s India-Pakistan Regional Young Leaders Initiative (IPRYLI). The Jinnah Institute, a non-profit public policy organization that seeks to function as a non-partisan think-tank, advocacy group and public outreach institution, as our local partner in Pakistan. In India, Asia Society’s India Center, based in Mumbai, will play a key role as well.
Zafar Choudhary is a senior journalist and trustee of Indus Research Foundation based at Jammu. He was editor of Epilogue magazine until December 2011. Recently he worked on a project supported by the Conciliation Resources, London, to research the peacebuilding and economic potential of the Cross-LoC trade.
Asia Society’s India-Pakistan Regional Young Leaders Initiative (IPRYLI) seeks to help nurture a community of next generation leaders in India and Pakistan committed to working together on a cross-border public service project addressing the most fundamental issues facing the region. Members of IPRYLI are comprised of select young leaders from across all sectors (government, business, civil society, academic, religious, military, etc.).
Through a competitive process the Asia Society has selected 12 Fellows for the India-Pakistan Youth Leadership Initiative. Five each are from India and Pakistan and two of Indo-Pak origin from the United States. Besides Zafar Choudhary, other eleven are:Atman Singh Trivedi, Counsel on matters related to Asia for the Democratic Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sharmeen Obaid Chenoy, an acclaimed documentary maker, Academy and Emmy award winner; Mekhala Krishnamurthy, Anthropologist and development practitioner; Sabeen Mahmud, founder and director of Peace Niche, Karachi; Sehar Iqbal, co-founder Green Ink Consultants, Srinagar; Munizae Jahangir, award winning journalist, film and documentary maker, Islamabad; Altaf Rafay Alam, a lawyer and environmental activist at Lahore University of Management Sciences; Ziad Bashir,a business leader and Director of Gull Ahmed Textile Mills and Abid Hussain Imam, Assistant Professor of Law and Policy at Lahore University of Management Sciences.
The Asia Society’s India-Pakistan Youth Leadership Initiative is advised by a group of outstanding personalities from both countries and the US. The Advisory Committee members are: Vishakha N. Desai, President, Asia Society; Haseeb A. Drabu, Former Chairman and Chief Executive, Jammu & Kashmir Bank; Jamshyd N. Godrej, Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd; Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan Director, Human Rights Watch; Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor of History and Director, Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, Tufts University; Ali Jameel, Chief Executive Officer, TPL Holdings; Najeeb Jung, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia; Radha Kumar, Director, Peace & Conflict Program, Delhi Policy Group; Baijayant "Jay" Panda, Member of Parliament, India; Moeed Yusuf, South Asia Adviser, United States Institute of Peace and Frank G. Wisner, Foreign Affairs Advisor, Patton Boggs LLC.
The Asia Society believes that making a long-term investment in the development of a regional next generation leadership network can help lay a foundation for the kind of long-term change that can ultimately help stabilize the region. With its seven-year track record, the Asia 21 program is a model vehicle to foster and sustain such leadership in the region.
The IPRYLI will be closely associated with the Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative, the Asia Pacific region’s leading next generation leadership initiative. Asia Society launched the Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative in 2006 to develop next generation leaders across the Asia-Pacific region. In seven years, Asia 21 has become the leading next generation network in the Asia-Pacific, with over seven hundred active members from 30 countries and economies and across all sectors (see http://asiasociety.org/policy-politics/asia-21). Established with support from Founding International Sponsor, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Asia 21 Initiative annually convenes a pre-eminent gathering of Asia’s most dynamic young leaders from the Asia-Pacific region, from every sector including business, government, media, culture and civil society. To date, the network counts more than 700 of the most accomplished young leaders in the Asia-Pacific among its members, including businessmen, documentary filmmakers, environmental activists, human rights advocates, members of parliament, military personnel, performance artists, and social entrepreneurs.
The Asia Society is an international organization dedicated to strengthening relationships and deepening understanding among the peoples of Asia and the United States. It seeks to enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of policy, business, education, arts, and culture. Founded in 1956, the Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution with offices in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, and Washington, DC.