New York was in one of its kinder June moods on Tuesday, as delegates gathered under the high ceiling of the General Assembly hall and the familiar wooden gavel waited on a table to be claimed. When the vote was announced – 99 for Bangladesh’s Khalilur Rahman, 91 for Cyprus’s Andreas Kakouris- the General Assembly […]
Op-Ed
Illusion of Representation
Propaganda is most dangerous when it wears the mask of authenticity. It borrows faces, voices, and symbols from the very society it seeks to manipulate, reshaping them so subtly that distortion begins to resemble truth. In this process, reality is not erased; it is repackaged, stylised, and sold back to the audience as something familiar […]
The 48-Team World Cup: Bigger Stage, Smaller Stakes?
The FIFA World Cup has always been football’s ultimate test. It is not just a tournament; it is a pressure cooker where every mistake is magnified, every point matters, and every group-stage match can decide a nation’s fate. That ruthless intensity is what has made it the greatest sporting spectacle in the world. But in […]
World Environment Day 2026: Stepping into Climate Action
Climate change is no longer a distant threat; it is a reality affecting every corner of the world. Rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, melting glaciers, prolonged droughts and devastating floods are clear signs that our planet is under stress. These environmental challenges impact ecosystems, economies, and human well-being. Making climate action one of the […]
How Venture Capital Learned to Survive Pakistan’s Fragile Economy? (Part II)
The pattern is clear: as foreign equity retreated, domestic capital – bank-led, debt-flavoured, and increasingly homegrown – stepped into the gap. The ecosystem is becoming less dependent on the mood of investors in San Francisco and Dubai. None of this means Pakistan has fixed itself. The interviews behind this research surface a list of self-inflicted […]
Power of Pakistan’s Diplomacy
In international politics, influence is not always measured by the size of an economy or the strength of a military. Sometimes, it is measured by the ability to bring rivals to the table, reduce tensions, and promote stability in a divided world. In recent years, Pakistan has increasingly emerged as a country that seeks dialogue […]
Time to Sanction!
Some time ago, I stumbled upon Dhurandhar on Netflix. It is a highly publicised Bollywood release nowadays. What followed was an exhausting, three-hour-plus marathon of blatant cinematic propaganda. While the film relies on heavily fabricated storylines, it also attempts something far more dangerous: it twists the highly sensitive geopolitical reality of Balochistan. The filmmakers, who […]
‘Good stuff should be shared with iron brothers’: China-Pakistan cooperation powering a digital future
“I need it!” A Pakistani agricultural business representative gave a thumbs-up while repeatedly praising a product showcased by a Chinese tech company. The product integrates digital spectral data collection, intelligent algorithm analysis, and automated detection processes, enabling rapid seed quality identification for agricultural enterprises. The Chinese company representative, while busy adding the Pakistani representative on […]
Why does Imperialism Fear Iran? (Part I)
“Violated, dishonoured, wading in blood, dripping filth – there stands bourgeois society. This is it in reality,” Rosa Luxemburg said. From Iraq to Syria, from Libya to Palestine to Lebanon, death-a guiltless negation of utopia- dances naked to Dionysian music, depicting the wild side of human experience. When Engels said, “Bourgeois society stands at the […]
Consequences of the Russia-Taliban Pact!
Russia is playing a high-stakes, deeply flawed game in Central Asia. By pulling the Taliban interim government deeper into its strategic orbit through a newly minted military-technical cooperation agreement, Moscow has crossed a perilous line. What Russian policymakers frame as pragmatic realism is, in truth, a short-sighted gamble that will ultimately backfire. By providing military […]