In the 14 months since its first leader-level summit, the Quad has gone from being a shiny object of tantalising potential to a used spare tire of questionable worth. The Quad’s anti-China maritime deterrence function was usurped by the AUKUS trilateral partnership in September 2021. New Delhi’s pro-Moscow tilt in the Ukraine conflict has soiled the grouping’s democracy versus autocracy […]

On May 17, 2022, Abdul Salam, a 33-year-old man from the Ahmadi community was stabbed to death by a seminary student, Hafiz Ali Raza alias Mulazim Husain, in the Okara District of Punjab. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), condemning the killing, tweeted, “The brutal murder of an Ahmadi man in Okara, who was reportedly stabbed to death by […]

On May 17, 2022, the Assam Police alerted two leading Public Sector Undertakings (PSU)s engaged in Oil and Gas exploration and refining – Oil India Limited (OIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) – to strengthen the security of their installations and personnel after receiving intelligence about a possible threat from the Independent faction of the United Liberation Front […]

After its ouster from the government, PTI have been protesting nationwide and now has finally called for a ‘Haqeeqi Azaadi March” (Real Freedom March), while the government has officially announced that they will not allow this march to enter Islamabad. Pakistan as a nation has entered the state of quagmire where many threats are looming, and a civil unrest cannot […]

Things don’t seem to be going too well for Pakistan. While the country’s financial condition continues to worsen with each passing day, with former Prime Minister Imran Khan declaring ‘jihad’ [holy war] to save the country from the allegedly “imported” Shehbaz Sharif led government, the political situation has turned extremely volatile. While Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives […]

It was unanimously decided at a recent meeting of the coalition parties in the federal government, that the coalition government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, formed after the success of the no-confidence motion, would complete its constitutional and legal term and the next elections would be held on time, that will be in August next year. What will be the […]

The recent visit of Dr Abdullah Abdullah to Delhi from Kabul has highlighted a level of developing outreach between the Taliban and India. There have been other examples as well, such as India’s delivery of wheat aid to Afghanistan which was welcomed in Jalalabad with Indian and Taliban flags side by side, and recent reports suggesting that New Delhi may […]

If President Biden and his national security team believe the unmitigated debacle of the surrender of Afghanistan was behind them, they are wrong. The ghostly presence of that logistics and strategic planning failure covers the White House like an unrelenting fog. The military leadership, organizational, intelligence, and diplomatic failures linger with each new or recurring government analysis. Most egregious is […]

As many as 400 cholera cases have been confirmed in recent months in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province, health officials said on Tuesday. Javed Hazhir, a spokesman for Public Health Ministry, said that cases have been reported in other provinces but that more cases of cholera are reported in warmer provinces in the country. “Kabul, Nangarhar, Herat, Helmand and Kandahar are […]

The UK’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last year showed “systemic failures of leadership, planning and preparation”, according to a scathing inquiry by British MPs published on Tuesday. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee probe revealed a “fundamental lack of planning, grip or leadership at a time of national emergency” before and during the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) takeover […]