The Ukraine war has introduced Pakistan to a new security threat. This new threat dwarfs the military threats that have...

Two things about Pakistani politics are becoming clearer with each passing day. The first is that elections, both provincial and...

Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are byproducts of military establishments and political engineering projects launched in different eras of Pakistan’s...

When I was a kid there was a hairdresser in our neighborhood who was a socialist—a socialist, pro-China Maoist type....

The political situation in the country cannot be more out of touch with reality or more disconnected with the direction...

There are political commentators in the country who can compellingly argue that Nawaz Sharif’s hobnobbing with Indians, and especially Indian...

Pakistanis, both common people and informed analysts, have a fantasized approach towards foreign policy and the geopolitical realities that govern...

Why has Imran Khan suddenly stopped talking about American interference in Pakistan’s politics? Why is he suddenly uninterested in accusing...

Ever since I started reporting on politics for local newspapers, I have always come across multiple dimensions and shades of...

In the spring of 1997, I was doing a fellowship with a Washington based think tank, the Henry L. Stimson...

The two pillars of political power in Pakistan – the military establishment and popular political leaders - are confused about...

Since the independence of Pakistan and India as independent nation-states, the United States has never been so detached from the...

Having an apolitical military is not a realistic objective in the peculiar political environment of our country - an environment...

In the Pakistani political arena, the Jamaat-e-Islamic lost its electoral relevance long ago. Adding to its political non-entity status is...

Afghanistan now exists in a strategic vacuum - big powers like the United States, Russia and China have written it...

Syed Khursheed Shah is a Pakistani politician who has demonstrated behavior that might prove conducive for sustaining parliamentary democracy in...

The withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in August 2021 was a clear indication that South Asia’s strategic value was...

Since assuming power in Kabul in August 2021, the Afghan Taliban have faced an arch-rival in the form of IS-Khorasan...

In September 2016, I was doing a story on the military's media policy and in the process, I interviewed a...

He could have been a hero in any romantic feature movie. Physically extremely smart, elegant and handsome with a soft...

Imran Khan’s conception of the military establishment’s role in the country's politics is the at the crux of the military’s...

In August 2021, when the Afghan Taliban captured Kabul and established a government there, many serious observers expressed the view...

When I entered journalism in November 1992, one of the first things that I learned in the newsroom was that...

What kind of political leaders does Pakistani society need? Certainly not the type that are currently in the running for...

While Pakistani political elites fight it out among themselves over the possible outcomes of existing political situations, obscured from the...

An influential Iranian historian of Islamic political thought, Hamid Inayat, had opined in one of his books that Muslims had...