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It is not often that the country which mediates between two implacable foes also finds itself standing as a leaden wall between humanity and annihilation. Yet this is precisely the strange, almost miraculous role that Pakistan has assumed. Today in Islamabad, under Pakistani stewardship, the United States and Iran are to begin bilateral talks, and with them comes something that we will call the “Meesaq-e-Islamabad” – but which ordinary people might simply call a covenant to save humanity, a promise to protect our children against unspeakable suffering. For that is what hangs in the balance: not just borders or bombast,…

By Khpalwak Mohmand In the digital age, the influence of words has expanded far beyond traditional boundaries. A single tweet, post, or video can shape public opinion within minutes, shift political narratives, and in some cases even affect national security, social cohesion, and political stability. This unprecedented speed and reach of communication has created a difficult challenge for modern states: how to confront misinformation, hate speech, cybercrime, and digital manipulation without undermining the equally fundamental right to freedom of expression. It is within this tension that Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, widely known as PECA, was introduced. Designed as…

By Kashif Mirza Somewhere in Lahore, a father sat with a birth certificate issued by the state, holding in his hands both a record of truth and a measure of loss. It bore the name of his daughter, Maria Shahbaz, and a date of birth that placed her firmly in childhood. It should have been enough. It was not. In February 2026, Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court ruled that this 12-year-old girl was capable of consenting to her own conversion and marriage, a decision that has since come to define not only a single case but the fault lines of an…

By Faraz Mustafa The global political order is steadily moving away from the post-Cold War illusion of unipolarity and toward a more fragmented and contested multipolar reality. Power is no longer concentrated in a single center of gravity. Instead, it is being dispersed among competing states and blocs, with the United States, China, Russia and a range of regional actors all asserting varying degrees of influence across overlapping spheres. In this shifting environment, smaller and middle powers are no longer passive observers of global affairs but increasingly active participants in shaping outcomes. Within this broader transformation, Pakistan has found itself…

With little more than an hour remaining before a self-imposed deadline, the atmosphere had already thickened with apprehension. The language deployed in the preceding hours was not the usual currency of diplomatic signaling but something far more stark, invoking the possibility of devastation on a civilizational scale. When such words are spoken at the highest level, they do not remain confined to political rhetoric. They ripple outward, unsettling financial markets, dominating global headlines, and feeding a quiet but pervasive fear among ordinary people that events may be slipping beyond control. The threats directed at Iran had followed a familiar but…

By Abdul Rehman Patel War rarely arrives with the clarity that official declarations suggest. It does not begin with the sound of missiles or the flash of breaking news alerts. By the time the public is told that a conflict has started, the essential moves have often already been made, quietly and methodically, beyond the field of vision of ordinary citizens. The idea that war begins only when it is formally announced belongs to an earlier age. In the contemporary world, conflict unfolds in phases that are less visible but no less decisive. The old story of a trader profiting…

By Shakeel Hussain History repeatedly reminds us that control over strategic routes can determine the rise and fall of great powers. Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat, for instance, was not simply the result of battlefield losses. It was also shaped by Britain’s overwhelming naval dominance, which constrained his ambitions at sea and limited the reach of his campaigns. Today, a similar dynamic is unfolding in the modern world, centered not on European waters, but on a narrow stretch of sea thousands of miles away: the Strait of Hormuz. In the contemporary geopolitical landscape, tensions between the United States and Iran have created…