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By Atiq Raja There is a quiet restlessness that visits most of us at some point, usually in the small hours or during the lull of a Sunday afternoon. It is the sense that we are moving, but not necessarily towards anything. That we are busy, but not always meaningfully so. In these moments, we tend to reach for grand diagnoses: a new job, a different city, a sharper routine. However, the more elusive, and perhaps more honest, answer lies closer to home. It lies in the relationship between two forces that dwell within every human heart: passion and purpose.…

By Amir Muhammad Khan There is a particular sorrow in watching a nation forget the terms of its own birth. Not the forgetting of dates or names—those are safely preserved in textbooks and the occasional newspaper column—but the deeper forgetting, the one that allows a people to celebrate a monument while ignoring the blueprint it represents. Every March 23, Pakistan pauses to mark the anniversary of the Lahore Resolution of 1940. Banners are raised, speeches are delivered, a holiday is declared. And then, with the rituals complete, the nation returns to its familiar occupations: its divisions, its distractions, its comfortable…

By Uzma Ehtasham The faint but distinct contours of a diplomatic breakthrough are taking shape in the Middle East, and it is Pakistan that has stepped forward to offer its capital as the stage for a potential meeting between the United States and Iran. On Friday, the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, made clear what had been the subject of intense back-channel speculation: Pakistan stands ready to host meaningful, conditional talks between the two adversaries, and considers it an honor to do so. In a message posted to X, Sharif expressed Pakistan’s full support for efforts to bring an end to…

There is a certain irony that settles over the diplomatic quarters of Islamabad these days. It is the irony of the pariah suddenly finding himself indispensable; the irony of the nation long dismissed as a chaotic frontier state proving to be the only address capable of hosting a dialogue that could determine the fate of a region. As Pakistan prepares to facilitate talks between the United States and Iran this Friday, the architecture of power in West Asia is being quietly redrawn. It is a slow, painstaking process, one that relies less on the bluster of press releases and more…

In the swirling currents of global diplomacy, where alliances shift like desert sands, Pakistan has emerged as an unlikely beacon of mediation. The announcement that Islamabad will host high-stakes talks between the United States and Iran marks a seismic realignment in South Asia’s power dynamics. What began as a tentative overture has blossomed into a full-fledged diplomatic coup, positioning Pakistan not as a peripheral player, but as a pivotal hub for peace negotiations between two longstanding adversaries. This is no small feat for a nation long painted by its rivals as unstable or unreliable. Instead, it catapults Pakistan into the…

By Dr Zawwar Hussain On World Water Day, the world pauses to reflect on a resource that may appear ordinary but holds an extraordinary significance. Water is not merely a liquid; it is a silent, immensely powerful force that breathes life into every cell, every organ and every system of living beings. In essence, it is indispensable for the survival of humans, plants and animals alike. It stands among the greatest blessings bestowed by God, yet tragically, it remains one of the most neglected. Some 60 to 70 per cent of the human body is composed of water, making it…

By Atiq Raja Every life begins with an interior landscape of possibility. Long before achievements can be measured or recognized, they exist as quiet, private imaginings—visions of what might be, rather than what is. For some, these dreams are modest and personal; for others, they are expansive, even audacious. Yet regardless of their scale, they share a common fragility. Left unattended, they drift. Left undefined, they dissolve. What separates those who merely dream from those who reshape their lives—or, indeed, the world around them—is not the intensity of their vision, but their ability to convert that vision into direction. Dreams,…

There is a particular kind of diplomacy that unfolds not in the glare of press conferences but in the hushed corridors where ambassadors trade in probabilities rather certainties. It is a world of contingency, of messages carried by trusted envoys, of promises made in rooms that do not appear on any official itinerary. The negotiations now taking place between the United States and Iran, with Pakistan as their host and guarantor, belong squarely to this hidden architecture of international relations. And yet the stakes involved are so immense that even the most closely guarded details have begun to seep into…

By Muhammad Mohsin Iqbal The spectacle of power, when divorced from prudence, often descends into isolation. In the contemporary theatre of international politics, the United States remains a formidable actor, yet its present leadership appears increasingly estranged from the very alliances that once amplified its influence. America may not be alone, but its president stands out in solitude. The distinction is neither rhetorical nor trivial; it reflects a growing divergence between the enduring strength of a nation and the faltering credibility of its leadership. The erratic cadence of policymaking—decisions announced with flourish only to be revised or contradicted in after-hours…