Emergency, Sanctuary and Diplomacy: Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Message at ISSI
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s address at the ISSI seminar on Pakistan’s evolving counter-terrorism landscape put Islamabad’s position plainly: terrorism is the defining challenge for the region and the world, Afghan soil remains central to the threat facing Pakistan, and the state will act decisively to protect its citizens. A Decision Taken as a Last […]
The Borrowed Weapon: Strategic Insolvency and the Nuclear Compensatory Reflex
In January 1953, Dwight Eisenhower entered the White House carrying a conviction that would define American strategic culture for the next seven decades. The United States could not indefinitely sustain a large conventional army capable of matching Soviet ground forces in Europe. The fiscal mathematics would not permit it; the political will would not sustain […]
Security First: Reading the Emergency Debate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The federal cabinet’s decision to advise the President to invoke Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is among the most consequential constitutional moves in the province in years. Should it be read against the security data, not only the political rivalry, because the case for it rests on one question: […]
The Great Indian Delusion
India’s aggressive diplomatic bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games has unleashed widespread global skepticism, exposing a glaring chasm between New Delhi’s high-tech geopolitical pretensions and its grim domestic realities. While state propagandists aggressively market India as an ascending global superpower, international observers are confronting a nation still grappling with profound infrastructural decay, rampant public […]
Prioritizing Power Over Security Undermines Governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The ruling administration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains consumed by political self-preservation and systemic power struggles rather than addressing severe governance failures and deteriorating public security. The widespread public indifference toward the provincial government’s recent long march exposes eroding popular support for political spectacles during a time of heightened regional vulnerability. Subordinating public safety to political […]
The Moscow Format’s Persistent Taliban Dilemma and the Way Forward
The eighth meeting of the Moscow format of consultations on Afghanistan concluded in Moscow on October 5 without issuing a joint statement. Zamir Kabulov, the Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan, attributed the lack of consensus on a joint statement to disagreements between Pakistan and Afghanistan. A more balanced portrayal, however, would attribute this failure to […]
Legal Remedies
The missing persons’ issue is not new. The post-Soviet political tumult in the world released the pent-up energy of ethnic and ideological conflicts that had lain dormant under the stabilising hold of totalitarianism. Consequently, as armed conflicts amongst and within nations intensified, the number of missing persons remained high during the mid-1990s. An international commission […]
Israel Illegal E1 Plan Destroys Two-State Solution and Regional Stability
The advancement of Israel’s E1 settlement project represents a critical juncture that directly threatens the territorial viability and geographic integrity of a future Palestinian state. Moving far beyond routine housing expansion, the scheme unilaterally redraws regional geography and fractures the spatial contiguity essential for a sovereign nation. Pakistan firmly maintains that Palestinian statehood cannot be […]
The Complexity of Pakistan’s Civil-Military Relations
Some Background True to our character, the ashhrafiyya-driven political system cannot go easy without churning out regular if frivolous storms in the nation’s teacup. Army bashing has now become a favorite theme for all and sundry. The 1947 Constituent Assembly framed the interim constitution under the 1935 Government of India Act, replaced by the first constitution in 1956. General […]