A few days ago, we commemorated Youm-e-Takbeer, the historic day when Pakistan emerged as the first nuclear power in the Islamic world and the seventh in the world. The late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto laid the foundation of Pakistan’s nuclear program, while former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responded to India’s nuclear tests by conducting Pakistan’s own […]
Op-Ed
When the Model Learns to Read Us
For years, asking Urdu of a large language model was an exercise in mild humiliation. The Nastaliq script came back garbled, when it appeared at all; more often, the system silently swapped it for a stiff Arabic Naskh that no Pakistani reader would recognise as their own. Idioms were rendered literal. Anyone who tried to […]
How is Battle for Chenab Unravelling South Asia’s Last Line of Peace? (Part I)
For sixty-four years, the Indus Waters Treaty survived everything the subcontinent could throw at it–three wars, nuclear brinkmanship, terrorist attacks, diplomatic ruptures that shattered every other institutional bridge between New Delhi and Islamabad. It was, as the textbooks liked to say, the gold standard of transboundary water governance: proof that even nuclear-armed enemies could recognise […]
Running from the Table
Azad Kashmir’s present crisis should not be reduced to a childish contest between a virtuous street and a heartless state. The grievances that fed the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee did not fall from the sky. Electricity bills hurt people. Flour prices hurt people. Elite privilege offended people. Governments in Muzaffarabad and Islamabad allowed […]
The AI Arms Race Runs on Electricity, Not Algorithms (Part II)
The country’s renewable energy potential is particularly noteworthy. Pakistan possesses substantial solar resources across much of its territory. Hydropower remains underdeveloped relative to its long-term potential. Wind energy projects have demonstrated promising results in several regions. Combined with improvements in transmission infrastructure and energy storage technologies, these resources could support future digital growth. Another opportunity […]
What Germany’s UNSC Defeat Revealed
The most revealing votes at the United Nations are often the ones cast in silence. When the General Assembly convened on June 3 in New York to elect the next slate of non?permanent members to the Security Council, there was no dramatic denunciation of Berlin, no public reprimand, no veto and no visible rupture. However, […]
The GB Electoral Calculus
There is something quietly instructive about the way elections unfold in Gilgit-Baltistan. Away from the roaring rallies and televised debates, the political conversation here tends to circle back to a simple, grounded question: who can actually make a difference to daily life? Decades of voting patterns suggest that the answer is shaped less by ideology […]
The AI Arms Race Runs on Electricity, Not Algorithms (Part I)
The world has spent the last few years obsessing over artificial intelligence. Headlines have been dominated by breakthroughs in large language models, increasingly sophisticated chatbots, autonomous systems, and the race among technology giants to build ever more powerful AI platforms. Governments are drafting AI strategies, investors are pouring billions into AI startups, and corporate executives […]
Water as a Weapon: Unravelling of a Treaty the World Once Called a Miracle (Part II)
Pakistan’s formal position is unambiguous: the Indus Waters Treaty remains legally binding, its obligations are not subject to unilateral modification, and India’s 2023 notice of intent to renegotiate has no standing under international law. That position has substantial legal backing. IWT contains no provision permitting unilateral withdrawal or modification. Article XII of the treaty specifies […]
Why Does Imperialism Fear Iran? (Part II)
The economic constraints imposed by the IMF and the World Bank are crippling by design. Reducing dependence on them and adjusting economic priorities to social needs, rather than competing within the world economic system on the latter’s terms, are among the salient features of delinking, a process that may or may not culminate in socialism. […]