Author: Uzma Ehtasham

By Uzma Ehtasham The ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran have yet to reach any coherent or sustainable conclusion, leaving the world suspended in a state of persistent uncertainty. Statements emerging from Washington and Tehran oscillate between guarded optimism and sudden escalation, creating a diplomatic rhythm that feels less like progress and more like controlled volatility. At moments, officials on both sides suggest that a breakthrough is within reach, that a deal is imminent, and that the long shadow of confrontation may finally recede. At other times, however, rhetoric hardens abruptly, and the prospect of confrontation once again…

By Uzma Ehtasham The confrontation between the United States and Iran has once again drifted towards the edge of a dangerous precipice, reviving fears of a conflict that could engulf an already exhausted Middle East. President Donald Trump’s decision to postpone a planned strike on Iran after appeals from Gulf leaders has momentarily slowed the march towards escalation, but it has not altered the underlying reality that the region remains trapped inside a cycle of threats, suspicion and military brinkmanship. The pause may have bought diplomacy a little more time, yet it has also exposed how alarmingly close the situation…

By Uzma Ehtasham KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah led a meeting of the provincial cabinet that focused on a wide-ranging administrative and development agenda, with 28 items taken up for review and approval in a session marked by procedural efficiency and emphasis on public service delivery. The meeting brought together provincial ministers, advisers, special assistants, the Chief Secretary, and senior bureaucrats, reflecting the government’s routine but significant exercise in collective decision-making on governance matters across the province. Cabinet members formally endorsed the minutes of the previous meeting before moving on to new proposals, signalling continuity in administrative…

By Uzma Ehtasham An international arbitration tribunal’s ruling on the Indus basin dispute has added a new legal and diplomatic layer to one of South Asia’s most persistent and politically sensitive fault lines. At its center is the long-standing framework of the Indus Waters Treaty, a rare surviving example of structured cooperation between two states whose wider relationship has been repeatedly shaped by rivalry, mistrust and intermittent crisis. The tribunal’s finding that India’s unilateral actions in relation to western rivers are inconsistent with international legal principles governing transboundary watercourses is more than a narrow procedural rebuke. It goes to the…

By Uzma Ehtasham Tensions between India and Pakistan are not a recent disturbance in an otherwise calm relationship, but rather the structural condition of their existence as separate states. Since the violent partition of British India in 1947, the two countries have been bound together less by cooperation than by memory, grievance and competing versions of history. The line that divided them was not only territorial; it also carved through communities, identities and political imaginations. What followed was not the end of a shared story, but the beginning of a prolonged and often volatile argument over sovereignty, security and legitimacy.…

By Uzma Ehtasham The meeting between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Beijing arrived at a moment when the international order appeared increasingly fragile, fractured by war, economic uncertainty and the sharpening rivalry between major powers. Against the backdrop of mounting tensions between Iran and the United States, fears surrounding the security of the Strait of Hormuz and the continuing instability in Ukraine and the Middle East, the language emerging from the Chinese capital carried significance well beyond ceremonial diplomacy. What was ultimately placed before the world was not merely another summit between Washington and Beijing, but a reminder that…

By Uzma Ehtasham A recent wave of claims circulating across social media has sketched an arresting but fundamentally misleading picture of rupture in the Gulf: the idea that the United Arab Emirates has abruptly left the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, triggering retaliatory measures from Saudi Arabia ranging from airspace restrictions to economic pressure, and culminating in the supposed collapse of the Emirati currency. It is a story written with cinematic certainty, where alliances shatter overnight and financial systems unravel in dramatic sequence. Yet it is precisely this sense of narrative clarity that signals its detachment from reality. There…

By Uzma Ehtasham The Middle East once again finds itself suspended in a familiar but increasingly dangerous state of fragility, where diplomacy, deterrence and distrust operate in uneasy proximity. The region’s fault lines are not only military and political but also informational, shaped by competing narratives that travel as quickly as missiles and often linger longer than ceasefire proposals. Against this backdrop, Pakistan’s renewed offer to facilitate dialogue between the United States and Iran has added a further layer to an already complex geopolitical landscape. Islamabad’s positioning is not new, but it has become more pronounced at a time when…

By Uzma Ehtasham A military operation in Barkhan district of Balochistan has once again brought into sharp focus the persistent and mutating nature of the country’s internal security crisis. The engagement, conducted against what officials describe as Fitna al-Hindustan, ended with the reported killing of seven terrorists. It also claimed the lives of a senior officer along with four soldiers, underscoring the continuing human cost of a conflict that has stretched across decades and repeatedly resisted a definitive resolution. In official accounts, the recovery of a substantial cache of weapons, ammunition and explosive material from the site has been highlighted…

By Uzma Ehtasham More than five decades after the violent rupture that permanently altered the political geography of South Asia, Pakistan and Bangladesh are cautiously rediscovering the value of institutional engagement. The restoration of high-level civil service relations between the two countries may appear understated when compared with the spectacle of summit diplomacy or headline-grabbing state visits, yet its importance lies precisely in its quietness. In many ways, bureaucratic cooperation often reveals more about the long-term intentions of states than carefully choreographed political ceremonies. Governments change, political moods fluctuate and regional rivalries intensify or recede with time, but institutions endure.…