Author: Uzma Ehtasham

By Uzma Ehtasham US President Donald Trump has escalated his rhetoric into open vows of carnage, declaring in a 20-minute address to the nation that America will unleash fiercer assaults on Iran within two to three weeks, vowing to crush all military targets and hurl the country back to the Stone Age. On the other side, Iran’s operational commander-in-chief, Amir Hatami, addressed a high-level military conclave, ordering headquarters to monitor enemy movements with forensic precision and stay vigilant every instant. In stern tones, he warned that any ground incursion would be met with overwhelming force—no invaders would return alive. Trump’s…

By Uzma Ehtasham At a moment when the Gulf and the wider Middle East appear to hover on the edge of a precipice, the joint diplomatic intervention by Ishaq Dar and Wang Yi offers something that has been in conspicuously short supply: a measured, structured attempt to slow events that are rapidly slipping beyond the grasp of conventional statecraft. Their meeting in Beijing, far from the theatre of immediate confrontation, carried the unmistakable weight of urgency. It was less an exercise in protocol than an effort to impose coherence on a geopolitical landscape increasingly defined by volatility and reflex. What…

By Uzma Ehtasham There is a peculiar silence that falls over a city after an explosion. It is not the silence of peace, but the quiet of shock, of counting the living and mourning the dead. In Quetta, on Saryab Road, that silence was recently broken by the crack of gunfire and the percussive thud of a hand grenade. When the smoke cleared, a civilian lay dead. A dozen more, among them police officers tasked with protecting the very fabric of the state, were left wounded. In the Kharan district of Balochistan, the narrative was one of resolve rather than…

By Uzma Ehtasham The ongoing hostilities in the Middle East have now passed the one-month mark, yet the bloodshed shows no sign of abating. Far from being a contained conflict, this violence is dragging not only the region but the entire world into a quagmire of instability. Once again, the world is being scorched by the flames of war. The waters of the Gulf are stained with blood, the skies are choked with smoke, and fear is seeping into the very arteries of the global economy. On one side stands American hubris, a superpower convinced of its military supremacy as…

By Uzma Ehtasham In the theatre of South Asian diplomacy, few exchanges carry the weight of accusation that Pakistan and India routinely level at one another. The ritual is familiar: a statement from New Delhi, a rejoinder from Islamabad, and the international community, weary of what it perceives as perpetual acrimony, turns its gaze elsewhere. However, when Islamabad’s foreign office spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, issued his rejoinder this week to recent Indian statements, the substance of his rebuttal deserved more than the usual dismissal as cross-border point-scoring. Beneath the familiar rhetoric lies a truth that the international community has for too…

By Uzma Ehtasham A month. That is how long it has been since the skies over Iran lit up with fire, since the Strait of Hormuz became a chokepoint of global anxiety, since the world was forced to remember how quickly a region can be set ablaze. The war imposed upon Iran by the United States and Israel has not been a distant conflict, one that the comfortable corners of the globe could watch with detached fascination. It has been a tremor under the feet of global finance, a spike in the price of everything that moves by sea, and…

By Uzma Ehtasham The latest signals from Tehran suggest that, for all the bluster and brinkmanship, a door – however narrow – remains ajar. Iran’s response to Pakistan’s recent diplomatic overtures, delivered through channels in Islamabad, indicates a willingness to engage, albeit on its own exacting terms. That Tehran has chosen to route its counter-proposals for a ceasefire through Pakistan, explicitly requesting they be passed to Washington, is itself a significant development. It speaks not only to a grudging acceptance of the need for talks but also to a tangible, if conditional, trust in Pakistan’s role as an intermediary. The…

By Uzma Ehtasham The countdown had begun. President Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz expired on Monday morning, with the threat of devastating strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure hanging in the balance. Then, in a move that has sent a ripple of cautious relief across global capitals, Trump announced a five-day postponement. On Truth Social, his preferred megaphone, he spoke of “very good and productive” talks over the previous two days, claiming that several points of agreement had been reached. Detailed and constructive negotiations, he said, were under way. The strikes would…

By Uzma Ehtasham After Israeli‑led air strikes hit Iran’s nuclear‑enrichment infrastructure, Tehran has retaliated with missile barrages targeting the southern Israeli cities of Arad, Dimona and other central districts, marking a dangerous shift from regional posturing to direct confrontation. Reports indicate Iran has launched multiple waves of missiles at Dimona over the past 24 hours, laying bare deep damage to buildings and infrastructure in a town that also hosts Israel’s guarded nuclear‑research complex. The Iranian media frames these strikes as a measured response to the earlier assault on its enrichment site, but the choice of target—Dimona—has turned a tit‑for‑tat exchange…

By Uzma Ehtasham Pakistan’s rulers have discovered a cheap new language of sacrifice. It comes dressed in somber declarations of “austerity” and “national duty”, but melts away the moment it is asked to bear any real weight. This year’s Pakistan Day is the latest stage for this performance. The traditional 23 March parade, with its carefully choreographed displays of military power and pageantry, has been scrapped. In its place, the government offers simple flag-hoisting ceremonies and a litany of symbolic cutbacks, all advertised as proof of fiscal prudence in an era of oil shocks and empty coffers. The message from…