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By Syed Shamim Akhtar Israel’s security cabinet has approved the establishment of 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a decision that brings the total number sanctioned over the past three years to 69. The announcement has reignited international concern over the viability of a future Palestinian state, a question that has long hung over the region as settlement expansion steadily reshapes the map of the West Bank. A statement from the office of Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, confirmed that the cabinet had endorsed a proposal he and the defence minister, Israel Katz, jointly presented to…
By Dr Zawwar Hussain Every year, on the morning of 21 December, the Earth enters one of the quietest yet most decisive moments of its long celestial journey. It is the winter solstice, a point when the planet reaches its deepest tilt away from the Sun in the northern hemisphere. At roughly 23.5 degrees, this tilt marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It is a moment that passes without sound or spectacle, yet it reshapes the rhythm of light and darkness across half the world. The solstice is not an event in the dramatic sense.…
By Sudhir Ahmed Afridi Improving the quality of education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s most deprived districts, particularly the former tribal areas where literacy levels remain low, is neither an impossible task nor an unrealistic ambition. Student dropout rates can also be brought under control, provided the government shows seriousness and places education reform at the very top of its priorities. If urgent and practical steps are taken to improve the system, align curricula with modern needs, make syllabuses shorter, clearer and more engaging, reduce overcrowding in classrooms, and address the acute shortage of teachers in public schools, fixing the education system…
By Uzma Ehtasham KARACHI: The Karachi Press Club has expressed profound concern and strongly condemned a growing wave of violent attacks, vandalism and arson targeting major media organizations in Bangladesh, including the offices of Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. It has also voiced serious alarm over the reported harassment of senior journalist and editor of New Age, Nurul Kabir. The KPC said it was deeply troubled by reports that since the transition to an interim government, more than 100 journalists have been detained on serious charges without due process. The detention of journalists without trial, it said, creates a…
By Imtiaz Hussain SHAHEED BENAZIRABAD: 21 December 2025: First Lady Bibi Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, MNA, inaugurated major road rehabilitation and expansion schemes near Sultan Mori and Colonel Mori in the 60-Mile area of Shaheed Benazirabad. The inaugurated projects include the rehabilitation of roads from Mehran Highway (Bandhi) to 60-Mile and the 3-Chak Road at Colonel Mori, as well as the rehabilitation and improvement of the Bandhi–Sultan Mori Road up to 3-Chak. These initiatives aim to enhance regional connectivity, reduce travel time, and facilitate smoother movement for local communities, particularly benefiting farmers, students, and patients seeking access to health services. Provincial…
It is increasingly difficult to escape the conclusion that India’s current regional posture is less an expression of genuine confidence than a calculated effort to reclaim already lost prestige—over centuries. Under Narendra Modi, New Delhi seems driven by a sense of grievance rooted in historical humiliation, real or perceived, during the period of Muslim rule in India, when many Muslim rulers married Hindu women, assimilated local cultures, and nonetheless presided over a plural society. Today, that buried history is being weaponized domestically: the narrative of a Hindu majority, supposedly threatened by the past and the present, feeds a political instinct…
By Uzma Ehtasham The latest assessment by the United Nations security council delivers an unambiguous verdict on a question that has haunted the region since the Taliban returned to Kabul: Afghanistan has not ceased to be a hub for militant activity. For years, the Taliban have insisted that Afghan soil would no longer be used for terrorism, presenting themselves as custodians of stability after decades of war. The UN report decisively punctures that claim. Describing the Taliban’s assurances as lacking credibility, it concludes that neighboring states are increasingly viewing Afghanistan not as a source of reassurance but as a growing…
By S.M. Inam The release of another one-billion-dollar tranche under Pakistan’s $7bn extended fund facility with the International Monetary Fund might have been expected to offer some breathing space to a battered economy. Instead, it has arrived with a familiar sting: a new round of conditions that all but guarantee further pain for households already stretched to their limits. Under 11 additional requirements attached to the next disbursement, Islamabad has been pressed to raise electricity and gas prices, cut subsidies and increase fuel levies. The result, economists warn, is likely to be another surge in inflation that will steadily hollow…
By Asghar Ali Mubarak The United Nations report on the latest India-Pakistan crisis lands like an uncomfortable mirror held up to South Asia’s most enduring fault line. Stripped of nationalist slogans and battlefield bravado, it lays out a stark legal and moral assessment: Pakistan was not proven to be involved in the Pahalgam attack, while India’s military action of 7 May crossed a clear red line under international law. For a region accustomed to competing narratives, the significance of this finding lies not merely in who is blamed, but in what it says about power, restraint and the fragility of…