Due to the initiative of former Minister President of Bavaria Franz Josef Strauss, the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) has been active in Pakistan in the service of democracy, peace and development since 1983. After the establishment and management of a technical training center in Loralai in Balochistan, HSF opened an office in Islamabad in 1993 thus extending the scope of its development work across the whole country.

Since then, HSF has been collaborating with the secretariats of both parliamentary chambers as well as with research institutes, think-tanks and public universities for the purpose of strengthening democratic structures in Pakistan. Today, the Foundation is regularly involved in activities all over the country with a focus on the federal capital Islamabad, and the provincial capitals of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. Even though HSF works by order of the German federal parliament, it is an independent organization that can act independently of agreements made within the bilateral government development cooperation.