PAKISTAN is currently muddling through a storm of political instability, economic downturn and resurgent terrorism. Large sections of Indian media and pundits have seized the opportunity to demonise Pakistan as the epicentre of the problems plaguing South Asia. In doing so, they aim to absolve the Indian government of its own contribution towards an unstable […]

IN September 2016, India announced that it had carried out a surgical strike against Pakistan. The strike had not happened in reality, and, at that point, most analysts concluded that India was essentially testing the waters for a ‘new normal’ in bilateral relations, whereby it could strike Pakistan without provoking a nuclear response. A few years later, […]

IN a remarkable display of quiet diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and Iran have announced their intentions of normalising bilateral relations. China, which had lately taken steps to deepen its political and economic ties with both nations, was a natural choice as mediator. Will this rapprochement last long enough to underpin a much-needed regional stability? Will it work this […]

THERE appears to be a general consensus in Pakistan, across the political divide, that Gilgit-Baltistan be integrated as a provisional province. The GB committee set up by prime minister Nawaz Sharif recommended in March 2017 that GB be accorded a status akin to a province of Pakistan. The Supreme Court of Pakistan, in its judgement of […]

TOWARDS the end of March, the US hosted the second Democracy Summit. The stated objective was to put democracy and human rights at the heart of the Biden administration’s foreign policy. The first summit held in 2021 had focused on countering authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting human rights, while the 2023 summit has discussed how […]

INDIA has assumed the chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for 2023, and has planned a series of meetings, including the forthcoming defence ministerial in New Delhi and the meeting of foreign ministers in Goa. The SCO is emerging as an important regional organisation in Eurasia given that its membership (China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the […]

EACH year, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom publishes its annual report, which normally includes a chapter on Pakistan. In its 2022 report, the Commission focused on blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws, forced conversions and forced marriages, and cases of targeted killings, lynchings, and mob violence. Based on the commission’s recommendation, the US State Department […]

WHEN you enter the Arsenal Palace in Vienna, which has now been turned into a war museum, one finds an emphatic short statement engraved on the side pillar of the grand entrance: ‘Krieg gehort ins museum’, which translates to ‘War belongs in a museum’. The galleries of the museum sho­wcase the military history of Austria, […]

PAKISTAN’S polity is fractured. Politicians are not willing to unlock horns; the economy is slipping down a steep slope; and terrorist forces are resurging. Some analysts view this situation as essentially a political crisis which will resolve by itself. Others, less optimistic, find Pakistan in the midst of a ‘polycrisis’, with political unrest, an economic […]