Pakistan’s governance crisis is increasingly visible not only in political confrontation, but in the state’s response to dissent. As opposition groups prepare protests, authorities have resorted to arrests, administrative detention, roadblocks and heavy security deployments—measures that critics say are narrowing the space for peaceful political activity.
The latest confrontation centres...
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is once again at the centre of Pakistan’s worsening security crisis. Despite years of military operations, counterterrorism campaigns and repeated promises to restore stability, militant groups continue to demonstrate their ability to strike security installations, police facilities and civilians across the province.
The latest violence in Kohat is...
Pakistan’s long-running reliance on security-first governance has come under sustained scrutiny over enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, restrictions on protest and media freedom, and allegations of abuses during counterterrorism operations. The central question is no longer simply how Pakistan responds to security threats, but whether security is being used to...
Pakistan’s much-publicised Makkah Joint Defence Agreement is now facing its first serious strategic test. Signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye on August 7, 2026, the pact declares that an armed attack on one member will be regarded as an attack on all three. Islamabad insists that the agreement...
The Makkah Pact was presented as a commitment to solidarity, cooperation and collective responsibility among Muslim-majority countries. Its real test, however, is not the language of declarations—it is whether Pakistan’s actions match the principles it publicly endorses.
Pakistan has repeatedly sought diplomatic space by portraying itself as a defender of...
Three of Pakistan’s four provinces have agreed to a proposed national policy to liberalise the sugar market, while the fourth continues to raise concerns, leading the country to miss an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deadline, Pakistan Today reported.
Finance Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal told the National Assembly Standing Committee on...
An excerpt from a speech Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif delivered at the United Nations last year is circulating widely again, just ahead of his upcoming address before the General Assembly. In the clip, Sharif can be heard telling the 80th UN General Assembly on September 2026, 2025, "Had...
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has accused the Shehbaz Sharif government in Islamabad and the Field Marshal Asim Munir-led army of institutional diktat, alleging gunpoint kidnappings and attempts to kidnap its leaders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), days before the party's planned mega protest.
Pakistan's opposition PTI has...
Political tensions in Pakistan are rising ahead of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) planned protest on September 27, with authorities stepping up warnings against the march and arresting three sisters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
A day after Aleema Khan was taken into custody, Pakistani authorities arrested Khan’s other two...
Pakistan’s military has spent months portraying the May 2025 confrontation with India as a clear victory. Islamabad’s account emphasised successful strikes, limited Pakistani losses and the alleged failure of India to achieve its objectives.
Yet the story does not end with Pakistan’s victory declaration.
What followed the ceasefire is arguably more...
