About Us
The Pakistan Discussion Forum (PDF) at SOAS, is a student-led platform dedicated to fostering critical, inclusive, and intellectually stimulating conversations regarding Pakistan's politics, society, history and culture. Open to students of all backgrounds, PDF seeks to go beyond surface-level narratives and create space for meaningful engagement with the country's complexities through a decolonial and interdisciplinary lens.
We host panel discussions, film screenings, speaker events, and informal dialogues that explore pressing issues from across the spectrum – political, social, economic, and cultural.
In the past, PDF has had the privilege of hosting notable figures such as former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, economist Miftah Ismail, former BBC correspondent Owen Bennett Jones, former BBC producer and journalist Umber Khairi, journalist Wajahat S Khan, physicist and public intellectual Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, political analyst Zulfi Bukhari and historian Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed amongst others.