Kurshid M. Kasuri, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, presented a public lecture, “Pakistan’s Role in a Changing World,” on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 4:30 p.m. in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall. The lecture was co-sponsored by LISD and the Woodrow Wilson School.

Foreign Minister Kasuri was born in Lahore in 1941. He graduated with honors from Punjab University in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts and did his tripos at Cambridge University in 1963. He went on to pursue post-graduate studies in Public Administration and Political Science at Oxford University, and was then called to the Bar from Gray's Inn, London. He has lectured in the South Asian and Political Science faculties at the American University, Washington University, George Mason University, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, and University of California at Berkeley. 

In 1972 Kasuri served as a Special Envoy of the Government of Pakistan to the UK and US. He was elected in 1990 as the Secretary General of People's Democratic Alliance (PDA). Later he was appointed Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the Interim Government and elected as Member of the National Assembly. Kasuri has served on several government committees, including the Member National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and acted as Chairman of National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information & Media Development.

In 1996, Kasuri served as a member of the Pakistan Muslim League's delegation at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party. Kasuri also attended International Parliamentary Union Conferences in Seoul and Cairo as member of Pakistan's parliamentary delegation in 1997. During 1998 and 1999, Kasuri visited Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and the European Union as Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. On November 23, 2002, Kasuri was appointed Foreign Minister of Pakistan.