From APS Attack to the TTP Amnesty on December 18, 2021It has been seven years since the deadliest ever attack against young students in the country by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. On a bright, sunny, winter morning, 147 children were brutally massacred in the Army Public School in Peshawar. At that time, hardly anyone could anticipate that a few years down, the line Osama bin Laden–the founder […]
Using Religion for Politics on November 9, 2021This government is using religion to divert the attention of the masses from the issues emerging from the neglect of his government. The bad governance has resulted in hyperinflation, an unstable economy and an increased poverty rate. Today, every four in ten Pakistanis are living below the poverty line, and anti-government sentiments are exponentially increasing […]
Israel-Palestine conflict: Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on July 17, 2021As the dust from the recent Israel-Palestine skirmish settles, the new government of Israel led by Naftali Bennet seems even more hawkish in approach than its predecessor. Naftali is committed to annexing more land to make it an official part of Israel. Interestingly, this year in May, he mistook Al Shifa hospital of Gaza with […]
Why do people believe in conspiracy theories in Pakistan during Covid-19? on July 20, 2020People of Pakistan, a conservative Muslim majority country, are significantly vulnerable to be easily trapped into the propaganda and manipulation of both political and religious leaders because the ability of people to examine the information has been diminished by virtue of the educational system. Pakistan, preoccupied with continuing internal turbulence, has been generally ruled by […]
Revisiting 9/11 and Islamic Fundamentalism on July 6, 2020Homegrown attacks have decreased in Pakistan for the last few years. It is mainly because of the operation “Zarb-e-Azb” that was carried on after the terrorist attack in a school in Peshawar resulting in the loss of 148 lives on December 16th, 2014. However, terrorism is a menace that does not see the limits of […]
Populism hinders democracy on January 11, 2020Answering hard questions with easy solutions is what the world is seeing now. Donald Trump in the USA, Narendra Modi in India, Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and Imran Khan in Pakistan are some faces in a democratic world highly influenced by populism. In the roaring twenties, the United States of America passed the Fordney Mc-Cumber […]
Pakistans fragile democratic transition on April 21, 2016The May 2013 election is going to be the most crucial election in Pakistan’s political and constitutional history. It will decide the direction of Pakistan’s political system, either maturing towards enduring democracy or continued political instability. On March 16, 2013, Pakistan passed through an important moment of its political and constitutional history. The first elected […]
Attack on the Ismaili community on May 21, 2015At a time when one thought things had started stabilising in Pakistan and the government’s counter-terrorism policies were paying peace dividends, terrorists struck back on May 13, 2015 by targeting Pakistan’s most peaceful religious community in Karachi. The attack on the Ismaili Shia community serves as a stark reminder that the threat of religiously-motivated violence […]
Countering violent extremism on May 8, 2015Of the several by-products of terrorism that have ruined Pakistani state and society, the threat of violent extremism is the most potent one. It has damaged the country’s tolerant cultural and religious ethos. In Pakistan, violent extremism is a multifaceted and multi-layered phenomenon with its own push and pull factors. The growth of extremism has […]
Why ISIS attracts so many foreign fighters on November 30, 2014In the last few years, Syria and Iraq have emerged as new hotbeds of international militancy and terrorism. The ability of the terrorist group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), to attract foreign fighters has created new challenges for global peace and security. A recent UN report indicates that, notwithstanding US airstrikes against ISIS, […]