About the event at the Nobel Peace Center 17 August

On Thursday, August 17th, Pakistan’s former president, Pervez Musharraf gave a lecture at the Nobel Peace Center. In addition to being the museum for the Nobel Peace Prize, the center functions as an arena for topical conversation and debate. Some of these events are programmed by the Nobel Peace Center, others by external partners. This time the Norwegian organization, Dialogue for Peace was responsible for the content and for hosting the event. Former President Musharraf was not invited to Norway by the Nobel Peace Center. His lecture was about security policy and the current situation in Pakistan and the South Asian region and approximately 150 people attended the event.

As the floor was opened for questions, the discussion between Musharraf’s followers and opponents escalated. When some participants attempted to silence and remove critical voices, we decided to stop the event. 

At the Nobel Peace Center we aim to have an open house. We want different, also critical, voices to be heard. We will not accept open debate to be hindered, but we will never use force to achieve it. Consequently, we found it necessary to cancel the Q&A and stop this event. We deeply regret how this turned out.