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Qursum Qasim is a graduate of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute with a Masters degree in public policy and specialization in international policy and development. She was a research assistant with Dr. Marvin Weinbaum, Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute, working on Middle East-Pakistan economic linkages and the Af-Pak region. She has a background in economics and has worked on private sector development in developing countries, on impact evaluations, and in the financial sector in Pakistan. Qursum maintains a keen interest in the politics and foreign affairs of Pakistan and writes on international affairs, especially the politics of South Asia and social development issues. At present, she is working in the healthcare sector.
The state of Pakistan seems incapable of learning from its experiences in former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and seems therefore doomed to repeat history when it comes to addressing the grievances of Balochistan. Home to nearly ten million of the 180 million-strong population of the country (an estimate at best, since the last census was in 1998), the province has the smallest population in the country but the largest land area.
