South Asia’s history is rife with conflict, but rarely has a dispute threatened a nation’s survival as directly as the unfolding crisis over the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and India’s assertive hydropolitical strategy. The decision by New Delhi to suspend its obligations under a treaty once hailed as a rare bastion of cooperation is not […]
When Merit Becomes a Moot Point
India insists its medical admissions system is blind to religion. The closure of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute (SMVDMI) in Jammu’s Reasi district has exposed how fragile that claim becomes once Muslim success disrupts political comfort. What unfolded in early January was not an administrative correction but a surrender–of regulation to street pressure, […]
When Evidence Speaks Louder Than Slogans
The politics of denial has long been a defining feature of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s response to May 9, 2023. For nearly two years, the party’s leadership has oscillated between selective amnesia and outright conspiracy, seeking refuge in rhetorical outrage while sidestepping the central question: who planned, facilitated, and legitimised the unprecedented attacks on state institutions? […]
Karachi Operation Should Be a Turning Point
Pakistan’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies recently achieved a major counterterrorism success in Karachi, uncovering and neutralising a highly dangerous terrorist plot before it could be executed. While the recovery of more than 2,000 kilograms of explosive material and the arrest of multiple terrorists rightly deserve public acknowledgment, the deeper significance of this operation lies […]
From Strategic Reset to Global Leader
By blending diplomatic deftness with an emerging export-driven economic statecraft, 2025 will be remembered as a year Pakistan reclaimed its agency on the global stage–not as a cog in great power rivalries, but as a strategic actor in its own right. For decades, Pakistan navigated the turbulent waters of regional geopolitics, oscillating between the competing […]
Toshakhana Convictions
For years, Pakistan’s politics has been disfigured by corruption scandals. But rarely has a case so starkly exposed the moral collapse at the very top of power as the Toshakhana corruption convictions handed down against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi. The verdict – 17 years’ rigorous imprisonment each, heavy fines, and disqualification – is not […]
Public Mandate for Cleaner Governance
When Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) released the National Corruption Perception Survey 2025 this week, two impressions stood out: ordinary Pakistanis report fewer daily encounters with bribery than in the past, and they are unusually specific about the reforms they want. The survey – a larger, more demographically representative exercise than previous editions – gives policy-makers […]
A Turning Point No One Saw Coming
When Wadera Noor Ali Chakrani finally stepped forward at Pakistan House, flanked by more than a hundred men who once followed him into the mountains, the moment felt less like a spectacle and more like the closing of a long, exhausting chapter. Their weapons, laid out in a muted row, were not the centrepiece. It […]
Why Modi’s Warm Welcome to Putin Spells Danger for India’s Credibility?
When a head of state known for aggressive war, a “pariah” in much of the democratic world, is greeted with a red-carpet welcome, 21-gun salute, and a bear-hug at the tarmac, followed by energy deals, defence agreements, and long-term trade commitments, the global watch-tower should sound an alarm, not applause. The December 4-5, 2025, visit […]
A Deal Draped in Drama
The supervised meeting at Adiala Jail, after days of PTI spinning rumours, whisper campaigns, and manufactured anxiety, ended exactly as many expected: a choreographed encounter, a scripted assurance that Imran Khan is “perfectly fine,” and a fresh round of political theatre. This was not transparency. This was not accountability. This was, at best, damage control […]