Afghanistan’s Regime Increasingly on the Defensive Amidst Expanding Resistance
Afghanistan is witnessing a marked escalation in armed and popular resistance against the Taliban regime, a development that speaks less to the ambitions of scattered opposition groups and more to the accumulating weight of the regime’s own conduct toward its people. Political repression, ethnic discrimination, social coercion and the steady erosion of basic human rights […]
Hiroshima at 81: What South Asia’s Nuclear States Still Haven’t Learned?
In the years following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the international community has continued to commemorate one of history’s greatest tragedies. These annual remembrances keep alive the memory of the immense humanitarian devastation caused by nuclear weapons and remind the world that the consequences of nuclear war extend far beyond the battlefield. While the events […]
Pakistan’s Glacial Lake Outburst Floods: A Growing Threat
The images emerging from Pakistan’s northern mountains tell an all-too-familiar story. Once again, floods have devastated the region. Roads disappear beneath mudslides, bridges are washed away within seconds, villages become isolated, and families are forced to abandon homes that have stood for generations. While heavy monsoon rains often dominate media coverage, another environmental disaster is […]
Five Years of Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis
When the Taliban marks its fifth anniversary in power on 15 August 2026, the defining figures will not concern governance or diplomacy. They will reflect hunger, healthcare, and the daily struggle for survival. Human Rights Watch’s latest assessment, released on 3 August, together with UNAMA’s monitoring for April–June 2026, paints a picture of a humanitarian […]
Pakistan Commemorates Kashmir Black Day
Black flags will be raised across Pakistan today, and rallies will move through cities from Muzaffarabad to Karachi, as the nation observes what has become one of its most solemn annual rituals of protest. Youm-e-Istehsal, the Day of Exploitation, commemorates the fifth of August 2019, when India dismantled the special constitutional status of Jammu and […]
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. […]