Hassan Khan

A surge in violence against women across Pakistan is turning out to be worse than previously imagined. Some are terming it as a reflection of ‘femicide’ given the fact that such incidents are either hushed up or underreported. The gruesome murder of Noor Mukadam has shaken the entire country to the core with protests and […]

On Tuesday evening, I was surfing through my Twitter account when I stumbled upon the claims of a disturbing, heart-wrenching murder in Islamabad. When further details emerged, I momentarily went into a state of numbness. The life of an innocent girl was brutally taken away just because of a toxic friendship that she didn’t deserve […]

As mentioned in my last piece, it’s appreciable that the Foreign Office has initiated a public diplomacy initiative in association with Coke Studio. This can go a long way in connecting global audiences with Pakistan’s unique musical heritage with the potential to host such events in major cities across the world. How important music can […]

Projecting soft power or building a soft image of a country through cultural and public diplomacy initiatives are accepted as crucial domains of modern diplomacy. This is because soft power is immensely important in building influence and pursuing national interest objectives amongst nations in a contemporary era. In fact, in many situations, it is even […]

When China embarked on its great quest for development through investment, the edifice of the massive foreign direct investment (FDI) was originally founded on the committed stream of investment by the diaspora abroad. In Pakistan’s case, however, the FDI remains low despite various endeavours. The key to spurring investment here would be involving its nine […]

Some days ago, I came across interesting news item published in an Islamabad-based paper. To my surprise, the race for the new foreign secretary has kicked off. While I was intrigued by what was claimed, I still noticed some glaring omissions and errors, which called for a more vivid snapshot of what is actually going […]

At the beginning of the year, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed “no confidence and serious reservations on the performance of the office of Auditor General of Pakistan”. Indeed, he noted “that corruption worth 180 billion has been unearthed in the institution”. Most of the work related to addressing audit reports ultimately proves fruitless in terms […]

America’s longest war, costing over $2.26 trillion and resulting in some 241,000 casualties (71,00 civilians), is heading towards its conclusion this year. Yet its policymakers are exploring options to maintain a small regional presence in order to pursue counter-terrorism and intelligence operations in Afghanistan. Of course, the first country that sprang to mind to help […]

For several decades Pakistan’s state has been plagued with a plethora of intra and inter-institutional issues that essentially kept its potential for economic development restrained, and in some cases caused a serious reversal, setting the country back by leagues. Two of the state’s key organs, namely the judiciary and bureaucracy, have been unable to evolve […]

Considering the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Arab world remained on the forefront in diplomatic and military interventions with Egypt and Jordan playing the most crucial roles. Their normalisation of relations with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively, have had their own limitations with the status quo remaining more or less intact. It was […]