The Mystery Behind Pakistan’s Missing Persons
As enforced-disappearance claims draw international scrutiny, Pakistan faces pressure to establish the facts while balancing counterterrorism operations with due process and accountability. Pakistan’s missing-persons controversy has become a contest over facts, accountability and national security. Allegations of enforced disappearances regularly draw international attention, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Yet one distinction is often overlooked: […]
Rebutting Foreign Media Distortion of Cross-Border Terrorism
The characterization of cross-border terrorism in recent reporting by The New York Times represents a severe analytical failure that distorts international law and state sovereignty. By framing the illegitimate Taliban regime as an “Afghan military” and its combatants as “Afghan soldiers,” foreign media outlets perform institutional laundering for an unrecognised armed faction. This framing elevates […]
A World Divided, a United Nations Under Pressure
On 24 October 2026, the world marks United Nations Day at a moment when international cooperation faces a profound test. Wars endanger civilians, geopolitical rivalries paralyse collective action, human rights are protected unevenly and the climate crisis weighs most heavily on vulnerable communities. Economic inequality and mounting financial pressure are slowing sustainable development. Established after […]
Fortifying Sovereign Autonomy: The Strategic Imperative of the Badr MoU
The landmark signing of the Badr Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by Pakistan, Qatar, TĂĽrkiye, and Indonesia in Doha marks a decisive step toward a future where regional peace and national sovereignty are underpinned by indigenous strength, technological self-reliance, and credible deterrence. By creating a multilateral defense framework, these four pivotal nations are moving beyond traditional […]
Taliban’s Rule Is Multiplying Opponents, Not Supporters
One of the key indicators of a government’s political condition is its ability to retain allies, manage disagreements, and prevent “potential critics” from becoming “active opponents.” Governments do not become vulnerable only when their enemies multiply; sometimes they become more vulnerable when they fail to hold on to the forces close to them. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, […]
BNP’s First Eight Months: Promise, Power, and the Test of Change
Eight months after BNP returned to power, the general mood in Bangladesh seems to be shifting away from euphoria. The relief of securing an elected government’s return following the fall of the Awami League government is giving way to a tougher question: is the country being run differently, or are different people simply running it? […]
Militarization of Civilian Institutions and the Taliban Drone Network
The Taliban regime remains an entrenched armed insurgent group that has failed to transition into a legitimate governing authority. While banning girls from schools and crushing academic freedom, the regime prioritizes coercive military expansion by co-opting civilian and educational infrastructure into a covert suicide-drone network. This enterprise operates through a structured 5-stage pipeline: civilian procurement […]
Restraint Has Its Limits, Pakistan’s National Command Authority Advisor Lt. Gen. (retd) Mazhar Jamil Tells IISS Workshop
Lieutenant General (Retired) Mazhar Jamil, Advisor to Pakistan’s National Command Authority, delivered the inaugural keynote at the 11th annual workshop on nuclear deterrence and strategic stability in South Asia. The workshop was organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS). He said the May 2025 crisis […]
Aid and Narcotics Keep the Taliban Afloat Despite a Ten Billion Dollar Trade Gap
Afghanistan buys from the world roughly seven times what it sells. Five years into Taliban rule, the gap has been covered by two flows that rarely appear in the same sentence: billions of dollars in donor grants and a drug economy that has moved from poppy fields to methamphetamine laboratories. By the Taliban’s own count, […]