Induced Chaos
Pakistan does not have an instability problem. It is afflicted by an instability-inducing system. The distinction matters, because a problem can be solved while a system has to be understood before it can be dismantled. For years, the country’s internal crises have been analysed as separate events. Each is treated as its own story, with […]
No More Stereotypes
Every time Pakistan’s textile exports gain ground in Europe, the same accusation is pulled from the shelf: child labour, unsafe factories, weak wages and environmental abuse. The charge is repeated so routinely that it is treated as established fact. It is not. Much of the current criticism rests on a deliberate conflation of Pakistan’s wider […]
The Legal Status of Jammu & Kashmir Under International Law
There are a few territorial disputes in the world that have generated as much legal and political debate as Jammu and Kashmir. More than seventy years after the partition of British India in 1947, the issue continues to involve competing legal claims, political narratives, and international commitments. While both India and Pakistan justify their positions […]
Bangladesh’s BIMSTEC Challenge Shows Continuity Isn’t Strategy
Bangladesh’s foreign policy machinery has been realigning its strategy on multiple fronts since Prime Minister Tarique Rahman came to power in February 2026. However, one position has remained unchanged: the chairmanship of BIMSTEC (the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), which Bangladesh assumed in April 2025 and will hold until 2027. […]
Afghanistan’s Fragmenting Resistance: A New Front Emerges in the North
Afghanistan’s armed opposition to Taliban rule appears to be entering a new phase, one marked not by the consolidation of existing resistance networks but by their proliferation. Reports of a newly emerged group, the Jabha-e-Rah-e-Bakhsh (Liberation Front), operating under the leadership of Gul Mohammad Pahlawan in Faryab province, suggest that opposition to Taliban rule may […]
Taliban’s Covert Media Influence Network Exposed
The leaked documents, reportedly originating from the Taliban’s intelligence agency, reveal what appears to be a coordinated, multi-million-dollar influence operation. The alleged objective was to pay analysts, journalists, academics, and media activists abroad to promote the Taliban’s policies and shape international narratives. If authentic, the documents suggest that the Taliban are seeking international acceptance through […]
Guilty until proven innocent: Pakistan’s textile trade on trial
When European lawmakers talk about labour abuse in the garment trade, Pakistan is too often cast as the defendant before any evidence is heard. A serious child-labour problem in one corner of the economy becomes, in the retelling, a verdict on an entire export industry. That is not regulation. It is collective punishment by reputation. […]
Five Years of Taliban Rule Built on a Lack of Accountability, Not Reform: HRW
The latest Human Rights Watch report on Afghanistan, released ahead of the Taliban’s fifth anniversary in power on 15 August 2026, reads less like an update and more like an inventory of consolidation. Five years after taking over Kabul, the Taliban have moved well past the early promises of moderation into a governance model where […]
Afghanistan United Front Launches Armed Campaign Against Taliban
General Sami Sadat’s return to the battlefield marks one of the most significant challenges to Taliban rule since the collapse of the Afghan Republic in 2021. Under the banner of the newly announced Afghanistan United Front (AUF), the former commander of the Afghan National Army’s Special Operations Corps announced the launch of coordinated military operations […]