Syed Rashid Munir

In the past few days, revelations about the presence of Russian military advisors in Syria have grabbed the attention of many. While academics and observers have been forced to take refuge in old Cold War references, it seems as though the US foreign policy establishment has been caught unawares by Russian assertiveness on the battlefield […]

Elections have always held an important place in the study of politics. All over the world, with all kinds of variations in electoral rules, the number of parties and their stances, as well as the composition of the voting body, the basic idea of an election stays the same: individuals get to exercise their rights […]

Immigration is by no means a new issue for the European Union (EU). As of early last year, almost 34 million immigrants of ‘non-national’ origin called EU home, and this number grows steadily every year. But for every immigrant that makes it alive and well across European borders, there are dozens others who are not […]

It has been well over two years since the 2013 general elections but the ‘mandate’ debate is still far from settled. The PML-N was hoping to have settled the rigging question once and for all through the favourable verdict that it received from the Joint Commission (JC) tasked with probing the elections but, recently, the […]

For the people living in contemporary Pakistan there are no easy days where we can, for a change, shun the horrific memories of the past, forget about the merciless mundane and focus on the future. Each day brings with it the possibility of death and devastation, and while the security situation has significantly improved from […]

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, struck down the challenges to the legitimacy of the 18 and 21 Amendments to the Constitution of Pakistan, thereby approving the creation of nine military courts for trying cases of militants. This meanst that the sentences handed out in the military courts — even death penalties […]

In a couple of days from today, we will be celebrating Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14. It has been a journey of 68 years for us so far and we must acknowledge that the years have not been kind to us. Our will has been challenged quite a few times in the past where […]

Death has a way of throwing the most intricately plotted plans out of the window. Forever the kryptonite to human ambition, its finality is unmatched by anything else in our conception. But some deaths, of course, are more final than others. No human can live forever but, in some cases, immortality is within reach. Such […]

After a tumultuous relationship with the west, one that has seen the Iranians face numerous hardships, things finally seem to be on the mend now, and that too, fast. The signing of the Vienna Agreement between the P5+1 countries and Iran signals the latter’s graduation to the big league in terms of international political clout […]

Kashmir, the land that both Pakistan and India claim to be inseparable from their respective territories, has been conspicuously absent from the headlines after the informal meeting between the leaders of both countries in Ufa, Russia. After the scheduled talks that were going to take place between Pakistani and Indian diplomats were cancelled a year […]