National Board of Advisors

Imtiaz Gul

He is the Executive Director of Islamabad based independent think tank, the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), which he established in December 2007 with the support of Heinrich Boell Stiftung (Germany). The Centre is a research and advocacy endeavor, primarily focusing on security and governance issues in Pakistan.
He has decades’ long journalistic, research and advocacy experience in security issues relating to Pakistan. He has presented papers at international security and counter-terrorism conferences/seminars in Brussels, Berlin, New Delhi, Kabul, New York, Washington, Hague, Riyadh and Rome from January 2010 to April 2011.

He is selected for a two month Asia Leaders Fellowship Programme by the International House of Japan and Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange Department of Japan Foundation in Japan (the programme is currently underway).

Jami Chandio

Mr. Jami Chandio is renowned writer, scholar, and activist. He is executive director of the Center for Peace and Civil Society (CPCS), a think tank based in Pakistan’s Sindh province. He edits CPCS’ quarterly journal Freedom and oversees policy dialogues and research programs that target civil society, especially young writers, journalists and academia. One of Pakistan’s most celebrated writers and scholars, Mr. Chandio is the former editor in-charge of Ibrat,Pakistan’s largest Sindhi-language daily newspaper, a former anchor on Sindh TV and KTN, and former chair of the Liberal Forum of Pakistan. The only two-time winner of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society Award (in 2000 and 2001), he has authored more than a dozen books in Sindhi, Urdu, and English on literature, politics and Sindh.

He has worked with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Pakistan as a political expert since 2004. He was awarded Reagan Fascell Democracy Fellowship in fall 2008 by International Forum for Democratic Studies, Washington DC andduring his fellowship; Mr. Chandio conducted research on the ‘Crisis of Federalism and Prospects for Provincial Autonomy in Pakistan’ and wrote a book on the subject.

Malik Siraj Akbar

Malik Siraj Akbar is the editor of The Baloch Hal, Balochistan’s first online English language newspaper. Based in Washington DC, he was a Hubert Humphrey Fellowat the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication of Arizona State University and a visiting journalist at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of Center for Public Integrity in 2011. He was a visiting journalist at the Poynter Institute, Florida in June 2011.

In October 2011, the US government granted Malik political asylum considering threats of persecution based on his writings critical of Pakistani government’s policies in his native Balochistan.

Spanish newspaper GARA called Malik “one of the most authoritative voices on one of the longest running conflicts [Balochistan]“. The Washington Post called him “a soft-spoken but steely man“.

In November 2010, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) bannedThe Baloch Hal because of its fiercely objective and critical editorial policy. Malik termed the ban undemocratic, a “ban on expression” and vowed to fight in spite of all the challenges. Pakistan’s most circulated English language newspaper, The News, deplored the ban on The Baloch Hal. The BBC featured Malik and his online newspaper as a successful example of online journalism in Balochistan.

Malik’s book The Redefined Dimensions of Baloch Nationalist Movement was released in the United States of America in 2011.

Muhammad Amir Rana

Muhammad Amir Rana is a security and political analyst and the director of Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an independent Islamabad-based think tank.

He has worked extensively on issues related to counter-terrorism, counter-extremism, and internal and regional security and politics.

He was a founder member of PIPS when it was launched in January 2006 and had previously worked as a journalist with various Urdu and English daily newspapers from 1996 until 2004. He has also been affiliated with the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Singapore as a visiting fellow. He has also given lectures at several universities and security institutes in Pakistan and abroad.

Amir has published widely in national and international journals, professional publications and magazines. He writes regularly for Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English newspaper. He has also been invited to appear as an expert on the electronic media, including CNN, BBC World, Al Jazeera English, France 24, CCTV9, Voice of America, Al-Arabia and other Pakistani and international news channels.

Amir is also the editor of Pakistan Annual Security Report, English research journal ‘Conflict and Peace Studies’ and Urdu monthly magazine “Tajziat”. He also heads Narratives, a publishing house.