Flaws of the FATA-KP merger on June 2, 2018On May 27, 2018 the Federally Administered Tribal Areas merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), creating history. The KP Assembly adopted the Constitutional amendment that made this all possible through a two-third majority, meaning the move was quite popular. However, not everyone was happy. There were protests against the move by Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F (JUI-F) […]
Sikhs in the Hindutva crosshairs on May 26, 2018The election of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Narendra Modi as Prime Minister (PM) of India has allowed the extremist Hindutva ideology to disturb the country’s social order. The ideology’s origins can be traced back to a secular, diehard Hindu named Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who in his 1923 essay ‘Essentials of Hindutva’ presented a new, distorted […]
Rising China and the Indian quest for power on May 19, 2018There is no denying the fact that India perceives China as its arch rival when it comes to gaining supremacy in the region. China’s meteoric rise has made the United States (US), the world’s sole superpower and largest economy, to also bewary of China’s economic progress. It therefore seems natural that the US and India […]
How Xi Jinping tackled radicalism in Xinjiang on May 12, 2018Xinjiang is a province in Western China. It is the country’s largest province, occupying 16 percent of China’s surface area, and has the country’s largest population of Muslims. In the past, China’s eastern provinces enjoyed greater opulence and a higher rate of development, perhaps because they are closer to the coastal region and ports. However, […]
The curious case of Shakil Afridi on May 5, 2018According to media reports, Pakistani prison authorities have moved Shakil Afridi — the jailed doctor believed to have helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden — to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Media sources quoted his attorney, who was speculating that the transfer could be a prelude to his release. The continued imprisonment of Dr […]
Enhancing the tobacco industry’s revenue base on April 28, 2018The Network for Consumer Protection (TNCP) report, 2017, informs that Pakistan has one of the highest prevalence of tobacco use in the world. This is alarming while it is equally distressing that the already weak tax levying and collection system of Pakistan is being deprived of its just share by the illicit tobacco industry. The […]
FATF needs to have a closer look at India on April 21, 2018The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recent decision to ‘grey list’ Pakistan for its failure to take satisfactory preventative measures against terror financing has added to the country’s woes. Pakistan may suffer a risk downgrade by multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and also a […]
Xi Jinping and the Boao Forum on April 14, 2018The 2018 edition of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), was held in the southern Chinese province of Hainan from April 8 to 11. The theme for the event was “An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity”. This event garnered significant international attention, which can be attributed to the ongoing trade […]
Moscow ups the ante on April 7, 2018With the diplomatic storm brewing in the backdrop of the attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, southern England, one would have expected the Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) to be a damp squib. According to the British government, a military-grade Novichok nerve agent of a type developed […]
The North Korean cyber-attack threat on March 31, 2018International observers were misled in their assessment of the potential of the nuclear threat from North Korea. Now they appear to underestimate the clear and present danger emanating from the destructive cyber-weapons in the hands of Kim Jong-un. North Korean hackers have learned how to skilfully disguise themselves. In certain cases, countries affected by North […]