Author: Uzma Ehtasham

By Uzma Ehtasham More than two decades after the attacks of 11 September 2001, the legacy of the wars that followed continues to cast a long and complicated shadow over international politics. What began as a swift military response by the United States to the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. soon evolved into a sprawling global campaign that reshaped foreign policy, military strategy and the political landscape of several regions. The phrase “war on terror,” once invoked as a rallying cry for security and justice, has since become the subject of intense scrutiny as researchers, historians and…

By Uzma Ehtasham The Middle East is once again teetering on the edge of crisis, a stark reminder of the fragility of international diplomacy and the profound human cost of geopolitical brinkmanship. The escalating confrontation between Iran, the United States, and Israel exposes not only the limits of dialogue but also the precarious balance between national sovereignty and global security. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has acknowledged that some countries are attempting to mediate. Yet his message is unambiguous: Iran’s pursuit of regional stability cannot come at the expense of its sovereignty or dignity. For those watching from afar, this is…

By Uzma Ehtasham Since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, yet the impact has rippled across the Middle East in ways few could have imagined. In the space of a week, what began as a military strike has become a regional conflagration, touching more territory than any single war in decades, perhaps since the Second World War. The sheer scale of the violence is horrifying, but even more distressing is how it has exposed the unevenness of global attention and the moral failures of those who claim to champion human rights. Iran has borne the brunt of…

By Uzma Ehtasham As the confrontation between Iran and the United States intensifies, a familiar feature of modern warfare has once again taken hold: the fog of war. Competing narratives from Tehran and Washington now dominate the information space, each presenting a sharply different account of events unfolding across the Middle East. In the absence of independent verification, the truth becomes difficult to isolate, leaving observers to navigate a landscape shaped as much by strategic messaging as by battlefield realities. Iranian officials claim that their recent attacks on American military installations in the region have inflicted heavy losses. According to…

By Uzma Ehtasham The latest escalation along Pakistan’s western frontier underscores a deepening security crisis that Islamabad argues it did not seek but has been compelled to confront. In Balochistan, fighters identified with the Afghan Taliban reportedly launched coordinated ground assaults at 16 locations across the districts of Qilla Saifullah, Nushki and Chaman, while carrying out fire raids at a further 25 positions targeting Pakistani forces. According to official accounts, security units managed to repel the attacks at all sites, killing 27 militants and wounding several others. The fighting, however, came at a cost. One soldier of the Frontier Corps…

By Uzma Ehtasham When Asif Ali Zardari rose to address a joint sitting of parliament, the chamber expected ceremony. What it received instead was a speech edged with warning, calibrated to resonate far beyond Islamabad’s red-carpeted hall. The president set out to draw a firm line beneath Pakistan’s security doctrine, presenting the country as a responsible nuclear power that understood both the gravity of its arsenal and the imperatives of national defence. The message was delivered without adornment. Pakistan, he insisted, would not be coerced, and any misreading of its restraint would carry consequences. It was an address that blended…

By Uzma Ehtasham The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, alongside senior political and military figures, marks one of the most perilous turning points in the modern history of the Middle East. Tehran has described the joint American and Israeli operation as a blatant breach of the United Nations charter and a violation of international law. Washington, by contrast, has presented it as an act of pre-emptive self-defence, necessary to neutralize imminent threats. Between these competing claims lies a region once again edging towards a wider and potentially uncontrollable war. Among those reported killed was General Mohammad Pakpour, head…

By Uzma Ehtasham The latest strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran, coming hard on the heels of a similar assault in June 2025, have deepened the sense that the region is no longer drifting from crisis to crisis but edging towards something more structural and sustained. What might once have been written off as episodic escalation now appears to form part of a deliberate strategic recalibration. The political geometry of the Middle East, already warped by years of proxy conflict and sanctions, is being redrawn in real time. For Tehran, the optics were stark. Another breach of…

By Uzma Ehtasham KARACHI: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was confirmed dead following US and Israeli strikes, state media reported, as another wave of attacks struck the country on Sunday. The assassination drew swift international reactions, with nations, global bodies, and religious groups calling for restraint and de-escalation. In Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, describing it as a “violation of the norms of international law.” In a post on X, he said it had long been a convention that heads of state should not be targeted and expressed concern over breaches of these international norms. Russia’s…

By Uzma Ehtasham In recent months, the country has endured a series of deadly attacks following determined operations by the Pakistan Army against safe havens of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Fitna al-Khawarij, and Fitna al-Hindustan in neighboring Afghanistan. These offensives, aimed at neutralizing extremist networks that have long threatened Pakistan’s stability, appear to have provoked a calculated surge in retaliatory attacks on Pakistani soil. The consequences have been severe: in Kohat, a militant strike on a police van claimed the lives of a deputy superintendent, five officers, and a civilian. Bhakkar witnessed a suicide attack that killed two officers, while in…