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Friday April 19, 2024
Abdul Basit
Abdul Basit

  • August 27, 2023

    PM's emergency meeting on inflated power bills bears no fruit

    MQM-Pakistan fears protests could turn violent; Pesco seeks police security amid fears of vandalism

  • March 17, 2021

    Will Biden’s plan succeed?

    Last week, in a bid to revive the floundering Afghan peace process, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote a letter to Afghan President...

  • December 31, 2020

    2020’s threat landscape

    In the last five years, Pakistan has remarkably turned around its fight against the twin threats of extremism and terrorism. The Global Terrorism...

  • October 24, 2020

    Concerted efforts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against poliovirus

    EOC Coordinator, KPK“We will n o t r e s t u n t i l every child in Pakistan is safe from the poliovirus. This needs collective commitment,...

  • October 24, 2020

    Concerted efforts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against poliovirus

    EOC Coordinator, KPK“We will n o t r e s t u n t i l every child in Pakistan is safe from the poliovirus. This needs collective commitment,...

  • October 24, 2020

    Concerted efforts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against poliovirus

    EOC Coordinator, KPK“We will n o t r e s t u n t i l every child in Pakistan is safe from the poliovirus. This needs collective commitment,...

  • October 04, 2020

    The rise of Maryam Nawaz

    Nawaz Sharif’s physical absence and the detention of Shahbaz Sharif has paved the way for Maryam Nawaz to spearhead the Pakistan Muslim League...

  • August 29, 2020

    More questions, fewer answers

    After several delays and setbacks, the long-awaited intra-Afghan peace process is likely to begin next week in Doha, Qatar. The announcement came...

  • July 19, 2020

    Geopolitical implications

    The news of the Iran-China strategic partnership agreement and Tehran’s decision to drop India from the 628-kilometer Chabahar-Zahedan rail...

  • July 07, 2020

    China’s edge?

    President Xi Jinping inspects the Chinese People's Liberation Army Garrison in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at Shek Kong barracks...

  • June 18, 2020

    Resisting the virus

    Due to the PTI government's mishandling, the Covid-19 situation in Pakistan has gone from bad to worse.From "the coronavirus is a flu that spreads...

  • June 15, 2020

    ISKP in Afghanistan

    Since the February agreement between the US and the Taliban, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province has unleashed a string of high-profile attacks...

  • April 06, 2020

    Congregations and corona

    In the face of growing coronavirus cases across Pakistan, the government’s decision to suspend congregational prayers at worship places is a...

  • March 25, 2020

    The Covid-19 life

    Since the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent war on terror, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus is the second most consequential development of the...

  • January 10, 2020

    Implications of Soleimani’s killing

    The assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Crops chief General Qassem Soleimani by the US in Baghdad is the most seismic event of the last...

  • January 01, 2020

    Pakistan’s threat landscape in 2019

    In 2019, the downward trajectory of terrorist incidents continued in Pakistan. Since the Army Public School attack in December 2014, Pakistan has...

  • December 29, 2019

    A look back at 2019

    The year 2019 was punctuated with a retreating neo-liberal order, anti-status quo protests, great power competition and persistent threat of violent...

  • December 17, 2019

    A downward spiral

    At the turn of the millennium, India arrived on the world stage as one of the fastest growing economies alongside China, and an emerging global...

  • December 12, 2019

    Dealing with digital IS

    This year has been a bad one for the Islamic State terrorist group. After losing the self-declared physical caliphate in March and Abu Bakr...

  • December 03, 2019

    Back on track?

    US President Donald Trump, on a surprise Thanksgiving trip to Afghanistan on November 28, announced that the stalled talks with the Afghan Taliban...

  • November 05, 2019

    Handling the maulana

    Who would have thought that the PTI's winter of discontent would arrive so soon – and that too at the hands of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whom the...

  • October 30, 2019

    After Baghdadi

    On October 27, the US Special Operations forces killed the dreaded leader of the Islamic State , Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in Syria’s Idlib province....

  • October 22, 2019

    Reviving the peace talks

    Following an informal meeting between the Taliban’s Qatar office representatives and the US chief negotiator Zalmay Kahlilzad in Islamabad, both...

  • May 29, 2019

    No meaningful progress

    Narendra Modi’s emphatic election victory is not only a reaffirmation of his Hindu nationalist agenda but also an endorsement of his muscular...

  • April 25, 2019

    From stalemate to stalemate

    Is there any possibility in the foreseeable future of Pakistan and India burying the hatchet and living as good neighbors? I’m afraid the...

  • December 30, 2018

    After the drawdown

    US President Donald Trump’s announcement to pull out 7,000 US troops from Afghanistan took both his allies and adversaries by surprise. As...

  • November 28, 2018

    From cooperation to collaboration

    The kidnapping and murder of S P Tahir Dawar, the foiled attack on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi, and the suicide attack in the lower Orakzai...

  • November 11, 2018

    Fruits of appeasement

    Following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to acquit Aasia Bibi in a blasphemy case, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan locked down the...

  • July 22, 2018

    Pre-poll violence

    Ahead of the general elections on July 25, terrorism has again reared its ugly head in Pakistan, threatening the security of political leaders and...

  • July 11, 2018

    An environment for peace

    The tragedy of the Afghan war is that it has several villains but not many heroes. However, this June was different. The three-day Eid ceasefire...

  • July 01, 2018

    Cooperative frameworks

    The killing of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Mullah Fazlullah, Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist, in a US drone strike in Afghanistan is a...

  • December 13, 2017

    A chronicle of surrender and appeasement

    The agreement signed with Khadim Hussain Rizvi to end the Faizabad sit-in marks a new low in Pakistan’s history of appeasing the religious right...

  • October 06, 2017

    The rise of the far right

    The outcome of the by-poll for NA-120, a seat vacated due to the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, sprang up a few surprises...

  • September 21, 2017

    After the by-poll

    The by-election of NA-120, a National Assembly seat vacated in July due to the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama...

  • August 31, 2017

    To Trump, with love

    Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” This sums up...

  • August 24, 2017

    A recycled agenda

    Amid ongoing political turmoil in Washington that has seen several White House top officials dismissed from their positions, US President Donald...

  • April 23, 2017

    A country in the crosshairs

    During the US presidential election campaign, Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ doctrine left many uncertain about his policy towards...

  • April 19, 2017

    Murder most foul

    Mashal Khan, a mass communication student at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, was murdered in cold blood over allegations of blasphemy by a...

  • April 09, 2017

    The return of Russia

    Afghanistan is emerging as a new theatre of the US-Russia power struggle, with Moscow’s return to the conflict-ridden country after an...

  • March 15, 2017

    The evolving terrorist threats and our response

    In February, Pakistan suffered the worst wave of terrorist violence since the tragic Army Public School attack in Peshawar in December 2014. Three...

  • January 07, 2017

    Urban jihadists

    Traditionally, jihadism in South Asia has remained associated with militant organisations, such as the Afghan Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba , the Indian...

  • December 17, 2016

    Neither winning nor losing

    Since the Isaf drawdown from Afghanistan in December 2014, America’s ad hoc and confusing policies, the incompetence of the Afghan government...

  • November 18, 2016

    Ties with the US

    Brexit shook Europe, and Trump’s victory has shocked the whole world. He not only bludgeoned the 24/7 US media punditry but also falsified the...

  • November 03, 2016

    Quetta attack: the rot is deeper

    Coming on the heels of two terrorist assaults by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami, the attack on the Police Training Centre in Quetta was a tragedy...

  • October 25, 2016

    Will the fall of Mosul defeat IS?

    In the past few months, the Islamic State has suffered significant territorial losses in Iraq and Syria. Most recently, the Turkish forces retook...

  • October 23, 2016

    Separate metro bus for women demanded

    Rawalpindi Awaz District Forum has made few proposals for improving Metro Bus Service in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, says a press...

  • October 07, 2016

    Thank you, PM Modi

    Trapped in his own right-wing and hyper-nationalist braggadocio, PM Modi has done great favours to Pakistan since assuming power – a feat no...

  • September 28, 2016

    Back to the future?

    When the US was drawing down troops from Afghanistan in December 2014, there were widespread speculations about the possible implications of this...

  • September 23, 2016

    Afghanistan: the coming crisis

    While security continues to dominate the news on Afghanistan, the long-running political crisis in the war-ravaged country is about to take a turn...

  • September 01, 2016

    A post-Altaf MQM?

    It all started on August 22 with Bhai’s provocative and controversial speech. In a fit of rage, Bhai crossed all moral and legal boundaries by...