OPINION
Financing Climate Action
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: August 20, 2023
The global climate crisis has left no country untouched, but it is the developing world that (more…)
Opinion
Pakistan’s Climate Journey in 16 Months
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: August 15, 2023
A small anecdote sums up the cognitive confusion (more…)
OPINION
The Season of Climate Migrants
by: Saif Jamali
Date: September 1, 2022
Human migration is the single most disruptive outcome of climate induced stress, as seen over decades across the world. (more…)
OPINION
A Fragile Stalemate on the LoC
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: February 24, 2022
In the policy permafrost of Indo-Pak relations, not much is expected to move towards resolution through diplomatic engagement. (more…)
OPINION
Who Will Win the Hindi Heartland?
by: Meera Nadeem & Abdulla Wasti
Date: February 11, 2022
India had once claimed the merit of being the largest democracy in the world, where 900 million voters enable (more…)
OPINION
The pursuit of strategic autonomy
by: Abdulla Wasti
Date: December 23, 2021
The recently held democracy summit ended up being another iteration of a world being divided into binaries. While the summit (more…)
OPINION
The Indo-Pacific shift: a struggle for power
by: Abdulla Wasti
Date: December 10, 2021
The recently held virtual meeting of the Climate Summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping might have initiated some meaningful contact between the two states, but...
OPINION
AFGHANISTAN: WINTER IS COMING
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: November 3, 2021
South Asia faces a perfect storm with the growing risk of an unstable Afghanistan, coupled with divided views in the international community on who must take responsibility for the strategic...
OPINION
Preserving Gains: The Fate of Afghan Women
by: Meera Nadeem & Abdulla Wasti
Date: August 14, 2021
As the map of who controls Afghanistan changes by the hour, the most affected on the ground remain women (more…)
OPINION
Recalibrating Priorities
by: Zahaid Rehman
Date: May 8, 2021
With a little over four months left till the US’ self-imposed deadline for withdrawal in Afghanistan, the narrative has shifted (more…)
OPINION
Terms for Peace
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: April 2, 2021
As Pakistan lurches through its worst wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, talk of peace with India fuels (more…)
OPINION
Of Signals and Compulsions
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 23, 2021
It’s early days yet, but after a period of protracted turbulence, the India-Pakistan relationship seems to be steadying. (more…)
Opinion
The Eastern Question
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 28, 2020
Part I How do states signal credibility and believability to their allies, adversaries and neutral fence-sitters? Given Pakistan’s recently prepared dossier on India’s terrorist involvement in Pakistan, pausing to consider...
Opinion
RCEP: A ‘Post-Alliance’ World?
by: Zahaid Rehman
Date: November 24, 2020
Whenever regional trading blocs are under discussion, free-market proponents are quick to point out the myriad benefits free-trade zones tend to bring. A windfall of revenue is promised. (more…)
Opinion
Shifting Regional Alliances
by: Zahaid Rehman
Date: November 15, 2020
The recently signed Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) between the US and India (more…)
Opinion
How to Engage America After the Election
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 7, 2020
As the dust settles on a closely contested Presidential election in Washington, many Pakistanis are wondering what kind of engagement they can expect from a superpower in the throes of...
Opinion
Ties with Israel
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: August 24, 2020
Last week’s decision by the UAE and Israel to normalize ties is testament to a fast changing landscape in the Middle East. While Saudi Arabia has put speculation to rest...
Opinion
The Forgotten People
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: August 5, 2020
August 5th 2019 is only one of them, yet it should have marked a watershed in world history, like October 27th 1947 when a despotic Dogra ruler stripped Kashmiris of...
Opinion
Pakistan and the New Great Game
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: July 9, 2020
As the China-India conflict in the Himalayas blows hot and blows cold, Islamabad’s studied reticence has so far only signaled quiet alarm. While both China and India try to de-escalate...
Opinion
After India’s Skirmish with China, Is Pakistan Next?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 1, 2020
The worst border skirmish between India and China in the Himalayas for decades has abated for now, but the potential for crisis still looms large over a nuclear-armed South Asia....
Opinion
Managing the Stand-Off
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: June 4, 2020
News of a border stand-off between two restive nuclear neighbours is always worrying. Yet when US President Donald Trump’s offer of mediation between India and China met with a studied...
Opinion
Ripple Effects of a Changing Oil Market
by: Saad Rajput
Date: May 11, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused some bizarre distortions in markets across the globe. One such aberration occurred on 20th April, when the price of a barrel of WTI crude –...
Opinion
Will Covid-19 Reshape Afghan Peace?
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: May 10, 2020
Pandemics have a way of sharpening existing social trends and political faultlines. As the Covid-19 virus sows its deadly harvest both in Pakistan and South-Central Asia, the prospect of renewed...
Opinion
Democracy and the Pandemic
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 7, 2020
Pakistan still has a long way to go in the fight against Covid-19, with almost 20,000 confirmed cases, and doctors and hospitals facing a harrowing shortage of testing kits and...
Opinion
Labour Interrupted
by: Mariam Bokhari
Date: May 1, 2020
Perhaps no one has featured as prominently in the Prime Ministers frequent addresses to the nation since March as daily wagers. The precarious condition daily wagers find themselves in has...
Opinion
Dear World, How is the Lockdown?’ Kashmir.
by: Victoria Schofield
Date: April 28, 2020
A year ago I was in the Valley of Kashmir. Although much had changed since my last visit, with new houses under construction, some roads repaired, there was still the...
Opinion
The Future of Global Governance
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: April 21, 2020
As the death toll from Covid-19 mounts, disrupting lives, livelihoods and much of the free market, global leadership is in short supply. This is clear from America’s intention to suspend...
Opinion
Parliament and the Pandemic
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: April 6, 2020
As global coronavirus cases passed the million mark on Thursday, the world struggles to cope with containment and mitigation without any roadmaps for such a pandemic. With the situation in...
Opinion
Will the Pandemic Bring Peace?
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: April 4, 2020
A global pandemic that moves with lightning speed to spread its deadly payload across borders, communities and class, demands a reconsideration at many levels. Even as we struggle to shape...
Opinion
Lockdown? Pakistan Not Convinced
by: Mariam Bokhari & Ayesha Mushtaq
Date: March 22, 2020
When a global pandemic burns through a country it first tests both its leadership as well as its national public resolve. In Pakistan much more is being tested, including the...
Opinion
Modi’s Hubris
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: March 17, 2020
Has India finally woken up to the need for SAARC? Or is its latest reincarnation an attempt to reposition Modi as a regional leader? While collaboration is welcome in the...
Opinion
Womansplaining Rights
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 9, 2020
As millennial women join every year now to celebrate their womanhood on 8th March, and to bond in solidarity for defining the rights to their lives and choices, many people in...
Opinion
Three Tsunamis for Pakistan
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 4, 2020
Like many parts of the world, Pakistan is going through a populist moment. A key trait of such campaigns is big-ticket promises of transformational reform in stark contrast to regime-outcomes....
Opinion
The Promise Of 29 February
by: Riaz Mohammad Khan
Date: March 2, 2020
The 29 February Agreement may well set in motion a process bringing peace to Afghanistan and an end to America’s longest war. The agreement marks a formal reversal of the...
Opinion
The Struggle Continues
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: February 5, 2020
As dawn breaks across the besieged valley of Kashmir this February 5, millions of Kashmiris will wake up to six months of virtual lockdown. A blood-stained arc of diminishing freedoms...
Opinion
Human Rights in an Imperfect Democracy
by: Tahira Abdullah
Date: December 10, 2019
“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the...
Opinion
Corridor of Peace?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 24, 2019
Writing about India’s role in the India-Pakistan conflict a decade ago, South Asia expert Stephen Cohen put forward the following proposition: “As for India, it is both part of the...
Opinion
Partition Redux
by: Syed Hassan Akbar
Date: November 18, 2019
It has taken a tale of two cities to remind us of how deeply the legacy of partition continues to afflict the conscience of India and Pakistan. In the past...
Opinion
Tolerance as a Political Value
by: Radha Shah
Date: November 16, 2019
November 16th marks the 23rd UN International Day for Tolerance, an occasion commemorating coexistence and diversity among communities across the world. In the quarter century where tolerance has been commemorated...
Opinion
Beyond Kartarpur
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: November 13, 2019
In the midst of the worsening stand-off between Pakistan and India, the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor has been a remarkable feat. The historical event may not break the ice,...
Opinion
CPEC 2.0: The Promise and the Peril
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: September 2, 2019
As Pakistan navigates changing power equations in the world, and the crisis in Kashmir, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) stands out as the one possible silver lining for Pakistan....
Situationer
Kashmir on the Front Lines
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: August 5, 2019
What Has India Done? After days of troop surges, arrests, speculation and denials, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah introduced a presidential order and a bill in Parliament on August...
Opinion
The Path Forward
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: July 18, 2019
The headway made in the recent talks between India and Pakistan on the Kartarpur corridor marks a way forward towards normalization of relations between the two nations. The two sides...
Opinion
Budget 2020: Popular Misconceptions & Economic Reality
by: Saad Rajput
Date: June 25, 2019
Debates about Pakistan’s economic stewardship have become a core feature of public discourse since the PTI government assumed power last year. Two mini-budgets and the removal of a finance minister...
Opinion
Budget Blues
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: June 12, 2019
In what is being billed as Pakistan’s most austerity laden budget in decades, new taxation and fiscal retrenchment measures are set to herald a difficult era of economic contraction. The...
Opinion
At Modernity’s Door
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: June 11, 2019
Shortly before Eid, an android application for moon sighting was made available on Google Play. A calendar that can be accessed through Pakistan’s first official ‘moon-sighting’ website now indicates scientifically...
Who’s Afraid of Mr. Jinnah?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 29, 2019
India’s election is over, and the BJP has won in a landslide that is nothing short of historic. The Opposition has been delivered a crushing defeat, turfed out of its...
Opinion
Saffron Sweep, Again
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: May 25, 2019
For the first time since Indira Gandhi, an incumbent prime minister has returned to Delhi with an even greater majority after completing a five year term. Narendra Modi, who was...
Opinion
Childhood Deserves Better
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: May 24, 2019
Another gruesome murder and rape of a minor has caused wide public outcry across Pakistan. Pakistan’s civil society, as well as the Prime Minister and military leadership have condemned the...
Opinion
Pathways to Détente
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: May 8, 2019
The fifth phase of voting in India’s behemoth election is over. The winner in New Delhi will shape, in part, the future of arguably the most tense bilateral relationship in...
Opinion
Leveraging CPEC; Investing in Human Capital
by: Nazish Afraz
Date: April 17, 2019
As Pakistan navigates a burgeoning deficit crisis, there is renewed focus on leveraging CPEC for growth. With government-to-government CPEC infrastructure upgrades well underway, all sights are set on business cooperation...
Opinion
Committing to Equality for Street Children
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: April 12, 2019
Madeeha Ansari April 12 is a day for the invisible. As the International Day for Street Children, it is a time to extend recognition to young people who are too...
Opinion
From Journalism to Jingoism
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: April 2, 2019
Meera Nadeem Prospects for dialogue between Pakistan and India now appear bleak as the two nuclear armed neighbours faceoff in what is perhaps the worst diplomatic bilateral stalemate since 1971....
Opinion
Where Do India and Pakistan Go From Here
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 28, 2019
For a region that until a month ago was on a collision course for war, India’s decision to boycott Pakistan Day celebrations at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi...
Opinion
After the Crisis
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 14, 2019
Although the 2019 India-Pakistan standoff may have passed its immediate intensity, it is clear that the entire episode has left a slew of new worries for policymakers all over the...
Opinion
The Fight for Our Rights
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 8, 2019
Today’s Pakistan has gone through several important transformations, most notable of which is the country’s default inclination towards some form of democracy, even if its current avatar manifests as illiberal....
Opinion
The Fault in Our Stars
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: January 30, 2019
With the PTI’s saddle-adjustment over and a debt crisis (temporarily) averted, it may be worth refocusing attention onto the guardrails of Pakistan’s democracy. Will the next four years of PTI...
Opinion
Timeline of US Taliban Talks
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: January 25, 2019
With discussions around Afghan reconciliation entering a critical phase, it’s worth looking at what is happening in Qatar and beyond. This short piece analyzes the push for a settlement and...
Opinion
Child Marriage and the Law
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: January 17, 2019
Pakistan’s children are its future. Yet not only is this generation put to work in homes, fields and factories, they are the silent objects of abuse and violence in ways...
Opinion
Mobility and Politics
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 30, 2018
It’s been an uneasy year for democracy in Pakistan. If there is a takeaway, it is that politics at the grassroots level continues to be an unequal game despite the...
Opinion
A Bridge Too Far
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 19, 2018
The momentary goodwill rendered by Pakistan’s offer to India to open the Kartarpur Corridor has evaporated, reaffirming some of the bilateral relationship’s worst and more deeply ingrained pathologies. These include...
Opinion
The Connectivity Dream
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: December 17, 2018
The Kartarpur corridor contains the seeds of more inclusive, people-oriented development in Pakistan and across South Asia The Kartarpur corridor connecting two Sikh shrines divided by Partition has posed...
Opinion
A Chequered Decade
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: December 10, 2018
On Human Rights Day, Jinnah Institute looks at rights legislation from the past decade of democratic rule in Pakistan through an interactive timeline of rights legislation, and an accompanying opinion...
Opinion
The State and the Street
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 2, 2018
Much has been said and written about the government’s handling of violent extremism. Recent events have made two things expressly apparent. The first is the growing capacity of religious zealots...
Opinion
Pak-US Terms of Engagement
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 12, 2018
The region is once again in the spotlight. The only good news is that during the US Secretary of State’s visit to Islamabad, the two sides endorsed cooperation despite the...
Opinion
The Anatomy of a Taliban Ceasefire
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 4, 2018
After months of regional stalemate, two events in June offer a potential roadmap for achieving a working peace. The first was the Taliban’s decision to accept Afghan President Ghani’s offer...
Opinion
How to Fix the Economy
by: Ehsan Malik
Date: June 14, 2018
The biggest challenge for an incoming government two months from now will be how to stabilise the economy. Foreign exchange cover, currently representing two months of imports, would have been...
Opinion
Who to Listen to on the Indus Treaty?
by: Ahmad Rafay Alam
Date: June 7, 2018
The World Bank earlier this week requested Pakistan to accept India’s referral to a Neutral Expert questions involving the design of the Kishanganga and Ratle dams. This is the latest twist...
Opinion
A Legacy of Deficits
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 21, 2018
The odds that the PML-N was going to be remembered for having contributed meaningfully to Pakistan’s foreign policy and reputation-building abroad were never high to begin with. But Nawaz Sharif’s...
Opinion
Muzzling the Press
by: Aisha Fayyazi Sarwari
Date: May 10, 2018
Pakistan, as a democracy - albeit a faltering stumbling, tossing one – should allow the airing of public opinion. In fact it ought to do more than just allow it....
Publications
Prospects for detente
Date: April 11, 2018
The Foreign Minister’s decision to criticize the National Security Advisor for meeting the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan in Islamabad last week was unfortunate and poorly timed. It was unfortunate because...
Opinion
Women Were Never Silent
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: March 8, 2018
Every country’s story is incomplete without its women’s voices. Pakistan is no different. On International Women’s Day we should always take stock of the good, the bad, and of course...
Opinion
Indus Water Treaty: Don’t Lose the Game
by: Ahmad Rafay Alam
Date: January 25, 2018
India and Pakistan have reached an impasse over issues of the Kishenganga and Ratle power plants. Their last meeting in the “good offices” of the World Bank last August and...
Opinion
Say No to Sexual Abuse
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: January 16, 2018
As the news cycle inevitably shifts to politics, violent extremism, the national debt, we all know that little Zainab’s story will fade away into a niche issue until the next...
Opinion
An Existential Threat
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: November 14, 2017
Half of Pakistan is enveloped in a nasty layer of toxic smog, as we speak. The problem is that smog is now an expected seasonal phenomenon rather than an anomaly....
Opinion
No Country for Doves
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: October 11, 2017
In a recent report “Are India-Pakistan peace talks worth a damn?” strategic expert Ashley Tellis questioned the utility of sustained dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad. Diplomatic engagement, Tellis argued, was...
Opinion
High Drama: Retrogressive fictions and Pakistani soaps
by: Fifi Haroon
Date: October 9, 2017
Soaps across the world survive on the echo effect of familiar stereotypes. This is not a phenomenon simply native to Pakistan – Indian soaps are wrapped in Kanjeevaram saris and...
Opinion
Women in the House
by: Marvi Sirmed
Date: September 29, 2017
Greater representation of women in parliament has been a longstanding demand of the women's movement in Pakistan. In 2002, this demand was partially met when 17 per cent of seats...
Opinion
Inglorious Empire: Getting it Wrong in Afghanistan
by: Fahd Humayun & Syed Hassan Akbar
Date: September 15, 2017
When Soviet Foreign Minister Edvard Shevardnadze visited Kabul and Islamabad in 1989 to discuss a peaceful transition from the Afghan war, the militants he sought to meet refused to give...
Opinion
Endangered at Home: Domestic Violence and Provincial Legislation
by: Maliha Zia
Date: September 13, 2017
The schism between Pakistan’s legislation and social realities is perhaps best reflected by domestic violence. It would be reasonable to assume that the enactment of legislation against domestic violence in...
Opinion
The Right to Public Space
by: Sadia Khatri
Date: September 7, 2017
My 13 year old sister and I play a game when we commute in Karachi. I count the number of men I see in public spaces, and she counts women...
Opinion
Women in Politics: A Long Road Home
by: Aisha Sarwari
Date: August 21, 2017
When a woman in Pakistan enters politics it is as though she has consciously decided to walk onto a minefield. Despite women parliamentarians enacting affirmative pro-women legislation and leading their...
Opinion
Revolutionizing Business: Women in Entrepreneurship
by: Sadaffe Abid and Babar Pal
Date: August 17, 2017
More and more women are beginning to jump on to the entrepreneurial bandwagon. In the words of Melinda Gates, “when we invest in women and girls, we are investing in...
Opinion
Women in the TTP: Recruiting Across the Gender Divide
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: August 10, 2017
Women in the TTP: Recruiting Across the Gender Divide In the course of carrying out its anti-state insurgency, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has damaged or destroyed over 1,000 schools in...
Opinion
War Machine
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 22, 2017
What does it take to win a $23 billion-a-year war? With DoD on the brink of recommitting up to 3,900 more American soldiers to the Afghan battlefield, and a possible surge...
Opinion
Between the Devil & the Deep State
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: June 4, 2017
There’s no shortage of irony in the fact that Prime Minister Sharif’s diplomatic snub at the Arab-Islamic-American summit this month coincided with a decidedly rough patch in Pak-Iran relations. While...
Opinion
Bad Choices
by: Hassan Akbar
Date: May 22, 2017
President Trump is finally set to address his country’s longest running war with a ‘new’ policy for Afghanistan. With a troop increase in the mix and a visibly more muscular...
Opinion
How not to talk with India
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: May 6, 2017
Talking to India is just as important as how not to talk. Starting from the premise that constructive dialogue is the first step towards untangling a history of vexed relations...
Opinion
Silencing Kashmir
by: Meera Nadeem
Date: May 4, 2017
India’s blanket ban on 22 social media websites in Jammu and Kashmir has brought to fore the agency of social media in the latest struggle for rights in the disputed...
Opinion
The Rise of Vigilantism
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: April 27, 2017
Ten days and three acts of vigilantism – the murder of Mashal Khan in Mardan, three burqa clad sisters gunning down a man accused of blasphemy in Sialkot, and Shehbaz...
Opinion
From Moscow, with love
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 11, 2017
As Islamabad grapples with the uncertainties of a new Trump administration, a recent timeline of Russian advances to Pakistan is not inconsequential. In 2016 both sides reaching a price accord...
Opinion
Curtain to the East
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: January 12, 2017
If there is to be a regional policy takeaway from 2016, it is that New Delhi’s apathy for a rapprochement with Islamabad has only served to veer the bilateral relationship...
Opinion
Smoke and Mirrors
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 22, 2016
As Pakistan looks to draw a line under 2016, the scar tissue from this year’s security miscarriages is unlikely to heal overnight. The success of Islamabad’s national security turnarounds, old...
Opinion
Moving out of Foggy Bottom
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 6, 2016
As Hillary Clinton moves into the Oval, the question in Islamabad is whether a fresh administration will bring with it the promise of a Pak-US reset. Given the PML-N’s growing incapacity at...
Opinion
The Fragility of Nuclear Stability in South Asia
by: Dr. Rabia Akhtar
Date: November 1, 2016
To state the obvious, strategic stability in South Asia is fragile. While India and Pakistan have satisfactorily achieved the technical requirements for ensuring strategic stability by institutionalizing their nuclear command...
Opinion
Our Brand is Crisis
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: October 6, 2016
At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the chances of escalation to war were assessed to be ‘between 1 in 3 and even’. A decade and a half since...
Opinion
Advantage Taliban
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 1, 2016
The war in Afghanistan is showing little sign of a seasonal let-up. As a successful Taliban campaign quashes hopes for a quick and easy settlement, the jury is still out...
Opinion
Taxing the Poor
by: Ali Khizar
Date: August 30, 2016
There is a worm at the heart of the Pakistan government’s strategy on enhancing tax revenue. The tax to GDP ratio in Pakistan continues to remain abysmally low and while...
Opinion
Subcontinental Drift
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: August 9, 2016
As global players reorient their power calculus, Pakistan’s maritime rim land is experiencing new cartographic anxieties. In Tehran this summer, President Rouhani, President Ghani and PM Modi heralded the Chabahar...
Opinion
Stabilisation Straitjacket: Budget 2016 and the Growth Bottleneck
by: Sakib Sherani
Date: June 26, 2016
Backdrop A nation’s budget and its overall economic policy framework are situated within a certain macroeconomic context.The mix of fiscal and other policies pursued by a government should respond to...
Opinion
Smokescreen in South Punjab
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: June 25, 2016
Back in May the Punjab Assembly unanimously carried a resolution hailing anti-terror operations in the province. On paper, the numbers look impressive: 10,000 intelligence-based operations have been carried out across Punjab since...
Opinions
The NSG and South Asian Security
by: Zamir Akram
Date: June 15, 2016
The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal cartel of 48 countries that regulates nuclear commerce for civilian uses and prevents nuclear weapons proliferation met in Vienna on 9 and 10...
Opinion
Things Fall Apart: The Politics of US Aid to Pakistan
by: Sauleha Kamal
Date: June 11, 2016
In a clear case of déjà vu, the United States has blocked $300 million in military aid to Pakistan, making the release of the funds contingent on Islamabad taking demonstrable steps...
Opinion
A Primordial Gender Binary
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: May 31, 2016
The recent death of Alisha, a 23-year old transgender activist from Peshawar, has brought in stark relief the continuing neglect and lack of entitlements faced by the third gender in...
Opinion
Missed Opportunities
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 22, 2016
As Tehran shakes off the morning-after effects of its international comeback, regional powers are lining up to cash in on the new Iranian moment, taking advantage of credit lines and...
Opinion
D-Penalty to D-Chowk
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: April 20, 2016
The protests that followed Qadri's execution were not instituted on a remonstration of capital punishment There is a disconnect (and at times an overlap) between those rallying against the death...
Opinion
Representational Deficits in Electoral Reform
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: April 19, 2016
A functional democracy requires public ownership of the electoral process. In Pakistan, making these processes inclusive of women, persons with disabilities and minorities is even more important. The recently released...
Opinion
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: April 17, 2016
In what has been an erratic few months for an India-Pakistan relationship still grappling with how to steer clear of diplomatic reversals, the capture of Kulbhushan Yadav in Balochistan has created...
Opinion
Gender & Security: Why Women’s Voices Matter
by: Sauleha Kamal
Date: April 15, 2016
This October, it will be sixteen years since the United Nations adopted Security Council Resolution 1325 affirming the importance of women in peace negotiations, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction. Despite this,...
Opinion
Fringe Power?
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: April 3, 2016
As large tracts of Iraq and Syria hover between Westphalian meltdown and militant takeover, policy pathways for Pakistan in the Middle East remain piloted by Islamabad’s foreign policy equation with...
Opinion
Winter of Discontent
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 9, 2016
For President Ghani, it’s been a harsh winter, and one that has laid bare the key capacity deficits and constraints of an Afghan state on the defensive. As Afghanistan’s winter...
Opinion
Bringing NAP to South Punjab
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 6, 2016
Two developments in early 2016 – the Punjab government’s move to detain Jaish operatives, and a high-profile Taliban attack on Bacha Khan University – have worked to refocus parliamentary debate...
Opinion
Birthday Diplomacy
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 28, 2015
A month ago, the odds of Prime Minister Modi surprise-landing in Lahore on Christmas Day to meet his Pakistani counterpart were next to nil. But thanks to what has arguably been...
Opinion
Pakistan’s Hard Choices in the Middle East
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 20, 2015
When Pakistan’s parliament adopted a resolution to stay out of a Saudi-led war against Yemen this April, consternation across the Gulf was palpable. Until this year, the most compelling reason...
Opinion
After Kunduz
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: October 19, 2015
As the dust clouds settle over Kunduz, Afghan peacemakers once again find themselves pitted against domestic public opinion. At home President Ghani is confronted with a tough new reality: that...
Opinion
Institutionalizing Electoral Reform
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: August 18, 2015
Beyond the headlines and Constitution Avenue blockade, there is growing consensus among political parties on the need for electoral reforms to strengthen democratic processes in Pakistan. This consensus stems from...
Opinion
The Kids Are Not Alright
by: Rimmel Mohydin
Date: August 16, 2015
There exist at least 400 videos of drugged and weeping children who, if able to talk, are begging not to be touched. 280 children have a story, which can’t be...
Opinion
Achilles Heel
by: Safwan A. Khan
Date: August 6, 2015
Of all the strategic assets that Pakistan can currently use to propel itself forward, the most discussed is its demography, comprised of a young and vibrant working age population. Left...
Opinion
‘JI President Sherry Rehman asks if Islamabad can Leverage the China-Iran Opportunity’
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: July 26, 2015
As the big global strategic picture shifts on its axis, Pakistan has opportunity knocking in two broad gradients, if not more. The only worry is that even if the knocks...
Opinion
Hard Talk
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: July 18, 2015
There was always going to be a lot riding on the first direct meeting between the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) and the Afghan Taliban. Two years after Hamid Karzai flew...
Opinion
Bring back the Moratorium
by: Reema Omer
Date: June 19, 2015
Pakistan has executed more than 170 people since it discarded the country’s informal six-year moratorium on the death penalty. At risk of imminent execution are a further 400 people that...
Opinion
Beyond Highways and Corridors
by: Safwan A. Khan
Date: June 3, 2015
When the federal government confessed to committing a ‘typo’ in the official economic growth rate figure announced last year, it didn’t come as a surprise to many who have now...
Opinion
Bus to Islamabad
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 28, 2015
When Indian Defense Minister Mannohar Parrikar spoke of ‘neutralising terrorists through terrorists,’ on a private news channel last week, his comments threw into sharp relief the time warp that the...
Opinion
Long Road to Peace
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 9, 2015
The war may have been won, but Afghanistan’s warm-weather fighting season is just getting started. As the Afghan Taliban fan out into the northern province of Kunduz, looking to take...
Opinion
Changing State of Play
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 26, 2015
When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov landed in Beijing earlier this month, he drove directly from the airport to meet his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. The meeting – less than...
Opinion
Not out of the Woods, Yet
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 25, 2014
Days after the US-Pakistan Defence Consultative Group’s meeting last month, Congress quietly green-signaled the National Defence Authorisation Act 2015. The new bill includes an extension of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF)...
Opinion
Childhood Under Attack
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: December 19, 2014
For a while, the silence following Zarb-e-Azb had been unnerving. Then,the apparent success in quelling terror began to be taken for granted, and national attention was diverted to dharnas and...
Opinion
Polio: A Policy Predicament
by: Palvashay Sethi
Date: December 8, 2014
The government's response to Pakistan’s impending polio crisis has been near negligible and characterised by apathy. The Pakistani public and children are especially at risk as the government seems unable...
Opinion
Militant Hydra
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 19, 2014
For militants sharing the inhospitable Pakistan-Afghanistan border, winter is coming. Structural changes in the militant landscape have left terrorist game plans in a state of flux. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)...
Opinion
What about the IDPs?
by: Asad Hashim
Date: August 27, 2014
You would think automatic gunfire in a crowd of thousands would herald more of a reaction. As the shots rang out, though, the majority of the thousands of internally displaced...
Opinion
11 August: Jinnah’s Promise Betrayed
by: Yasser Latif Hamdani
Date: August 11, 2014
On 11 August 1947, the Pakistan Constituent Assembly (“PCA”) met for the first time. The inaugural session was presided by Shri Jogindranath Mandal, president of the Scheduled Caste Federation and...
Opinion
Afghanistan’s Presidential Election 2014
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: May 6, 2014
The Long Road to April In less than a week, Afghanistan will be heading to the polls to elect a new President. This will be the country’s first democratic leadership...
Opinion
Looking Beyond India’s Chabahar Option
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 7, 2014
The ‘Bali Package’ unveiled at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Indonesia this December backed new mechanisms for lowering global trade barriers, including an agreement between members (yet to be ratified...
Opinion
Cosmetic Changes
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: February 28, 2014
“Desperate times call for desperate measures” was a common refrain in the post 9/11 world, as security establishments across the globe geared up to supposedly combat unprecedented levels of terrorism. The...
Opinion
Trojan Tactics
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: February 4, 2014
Last week the PM teetered on the knife-edge of launching a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan. For the first time in months it seemed as if the PML-N had...
Opinion
Honoring Aitzaz Hasan: Fighting the Demons of Sectarianism
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: January 11, 2014
On the morning of January 6th, Aitzaz Hasan lost his life while preventing a suicide bomber from entering his school. The only thing standing between the 2000 children enrolled in...
Opinion
India-Pakistan trade relations: Current and Potential
by: Rohit Kumar
Date: January 3, 2014
In recent years, efforts towards promoting peace in South Asia have pivoted around the idea of improving trade relations as the best bet in forging a lasting relationship between...
Opinion
Helping Pakistan’s Rural Women Help Themselves
by: Bina Shah
Date: December 12, 2013
Pakistan’s rural women are slowly enacting change in their lives. Women perform a significant amount of labor in the fields, but that they still struggle to be recognized as equal...
Opinion
Papering Over Faultlines – The Fall Out of the Peshawar Church Bombing
by: Anthony Permal
Date: December 2, 2013
As I write this, Christian families in Peshawar, Pakistan are preparing to bury their dead, who were massacred in a suicide bombing at their church on Sunday. This isn't all...
Opinion
She’s More than a Slogan
by: Ahmer Naqvi
Date: December 2, 2013
In a few hours, we will know if a young girl will get to become what one commentator described as the reason the Nobel Peace Prize gets its credibility...
Opinion
Report says “Depoliticising the Youth will Derail the Nation”
by: Salman Zaidi
Date: December 2, 2013
The peace process between India and Pakistan is often like a snakes and ladders trope. The recent flare-up across the Line of Control (LoC), with daily reports of cross border shelling...
Opinion
Challenges of Political Transition
by: Raza Rumi
Date: December 2, 2013
Pakistan’s next general election, due in a few months, will be the first where civilian forces are in charge of the transition from one elected government to another. Throughout...
Opinion
A Game of Thrones in Waziristan: The Return of Fazlullah
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 29, 2013
Maulana Fazlullah was always the wild card. As Hakimullah Mehsud’s last rites were being read, and emergency conclaves were being summoned across six other tribal agencies to deliberate upon the militant...
Opinion
Moment of Opportunity
by: Sherry Rehman and Amitabh Mattoo
Date: November 29, 2013
As co-chairs of the Chaophraya dialogue between opinion makers from India and Pakistan, we are encouraged by reports of resumption of the official dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi, and...
Opinion
Time to Move on
by: Raza Rumi
Date: November 29, 2013
Why India's leadership needs to break with the past, reimagine Pakistan India-Pakistan relations are once again in the spotlight and for the usual reasons. The two states have perfected the...
Opinion
Can the Peace Process Move Past the Doha Collapse?
by: Syed Baqir Sajjad
Date: November 29, 2013
As the 12th year of the Afghan war draws to an impasse, there are signs of an abstract convergence about peace in the country, although many of the components of that...
Opinion
Karzai in Pakistan – Tailoring Great Expectations
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 29, 2013
He flew into Pakistan from Kabul on Monday with a tightly scheduled ten-hour itinerary in hand, only to later announce his decision to extend his visit until Tuesday and lunch...
Opinion
Pakistan-India: What Next?
by: Salman Zaidi
Date: November 29, 2013
The peace process between India and Pakistan is often like a snakes and ladders trope. The recent flare-up across the Line of Control (LoC), with daily reports of cross border shelling...
Opinion
Navigating the Currents of Pakistan’s Water Debate
by: Ahmed Rafay Alam
Date: November 29, 2013
The amount of water on our planet has been the same since the beginning of time. The same water is either in the atmosphere, in clouds and rain; on the...
Opinion
New Assembly Faces Big Challenges
by: Shahzad Raza
Date: November 29, 2013
The general elections held on May 11 have led to decisive shift in the composition of the National Assembly of Pakistan, in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz....
Opinion
Hate-Speech and Social Media in Pakistan
by: Jahanzaib Haque
Date: November 29, 2013
Pakistani media is an agent of CIA and RAW, Shariat ya Shahadat (Shariah or Martydom), Maslak-e-Deoband (Cult of Deoband) and Shias are unbelievers. This is not a list of slogans chanted by extremists on the streets...
Opinion
What Will We Ban Next?
by: Jahanzaib Haque
Date: November 29, 2013
Censorship, when undertaken in the name of vague, ill-defined and subjective concepts such as ‘national interest’ or religion and morality, is a slippery slope with disastrous consequences – and this...
Opinion
Invoking the Morality Clause
by: Nadir Hassan
Date: November 29, 2013
In the years gone past, Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution had been treated like adverbs in an elaborate sentence – there to make things look comprehensive, but ultimately...
Opinion
Resurgence of Polio virus in Pakistan is a national emergency
by: Faris Islam
Date: November 29, 2013
Pakistan is one of the three countries in which polio remains endemic. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has recently reported that there are six sanctuaries for the polio virus:...
Opinion
Federalism: The Journey Continues
by: Mian Raza Rabbani (NI)
Date: November 29, 2013
Federalism has thus far been poorly understood in Pakistan. It is a system that respects diversity, promotes pluralism, and balances national with state powers. Federal governments promote stronger institutions...
Opinion
The Education Landscape – Bridging Gaps
by: Madeeha Ansari
Date: November 29, 2013
The year 2011 was the “Year of Education” for Pakistan. The Pakistan Education Task Force, drawing upon Article 25A of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, created a sense of urgency...
Opinion
Participants in Peace
by: Ayaz Wazir
Date: November 25, 2013
The entire 2012 passed without any positive development taking place relating to Afghanistan, except the very last month, which witnessed some encouraging signs in the shape of two conferences,...
Opinion
Overcoming the Livelihood Crisis in Flood-Affected Areas
by: Asad Sayeed
Date: November 25, 2013
Perhaps one of the most formidable challenges facing the state and society in Pakistan today is the reconstruction and rehabilitation after the damage caused by the recent floods. While there...
Opinion
Navigating the Currents of Pakistan’s Water Debate
by: Ahmed Rafay Alam
Date: November 25, 2013
The amount of water on our planet has been the same since the beginning of time. The same water is either in the atmosphere, in clouds and rain; on the...
Opinion
Flood Updates: February 2011
by: Erum Haider
Date: November 25, 2013
Jinnah Institute: Update from the Pakistan Floods Six months after the devastating floods hit Pakistan, early evaluations of the crisis indicate that the challenges are far from over, and that...
Opinion
Prioritizing Women and Children During Flood Rehabilitation
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 25, 2013
10 million women and children were affected in last year’s catastrophic floods that caused the largest humanitarian crisis in Pakistan[1]. The areas most impacted by the floods were among the...
Opinion
Is democracy threatened by governor’s rule in Balochistan?
by: Syed Baqir Sajjad
Date: November 19, 2013
With the federal government set to end Governor's Rule in Balochistan to set up an interim administration for elections, it is time to evaluate if the move helped improve the...
Opinion
Sherry Rehman, JI Executive President, on the “Malala Moment”
by: Sherry Rehman
Date: November 19, 2013
She didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize. That's totally ok. The award nomination is a milestone among many. Malala Yousafzai, 16, is still proud and hopeful that she will move bigger...
Opinion
Moving Past the Crisis Metric
by: Salim Raza
Date: November 19, 2013
Salim Raza, Former Governor State Bank of Pakistan, poses key questions on Pakistan's crisis-ridden economic trajectory and points to a path forward for embedding the model in sustained macro...
Opinion
An Anatomy of Sharif’s First 100 Days
by: Zahid Hussain
Date: November 19, 2013
For a third-timer it’s been a laborious start; a triumphant return to power notwithstanding, the first 100 days of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government have been decidedly short on deliverables....
Opinion
Will Pakistan’s devolution reform lead to pro-women policies at the sub-national level?
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 18, 2013
Punjab has shown the way forward after the devolution of women's development ministry; however, implementation will remain a challenge The past two years have proved to be significant with the...
Opinion
Courage in the Face of Great Adversity
by: Sehar Tariq
Date: November 18, 2013
Malala Yousufzai has helped Pakistan remember what courage in the face of great adversity looks like. She has helped remind our fractured nation that there are still some lines...
Opinion
Rimsha’s acquittal: a new beginning?
by: Raza Rumi
Date: November 18, 2013
An Islamabad court has acquitted Rimsha Masih, a Christian child accused of blasphemy. Her trial showed that a local Mullah tried to frame her, and she is now free....
Opinion
Women in Pakistan – Battling the Odds
by: Mariam Kizilbash
Date: November 18, 2013
For many decades in Pakistan, an entire architecture of laws has been used to persecute and marginalise women, most potently symbolised by the Hudood Ordinances and other discriminatory laws instituted...
Opinion
Pakistan’s Floods One Year On: Flood Victims Continue To Face Long Term Challenges
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 18, 2013
This month marks a year since Pakistan faced the worst floods in its history. The deluge devastated and submerged entire villages, roads, bridges, water supply and sanitation infrastructure, agricultural lands,...
Opinion
Strengthening democracy through access to information
by: Raniya Khan
Date: November 18, 2013
The recent introduction of Rule 46 in the Punjab Government Rules of Business 2011 disallows all government employees in Punjab to speak about official business to media, non-officials, or to...
Opinion
Repeating History: Floods in Sindh create devastation for over 7.4 million people
by: Mishael AliKhan
Date: November 18, 2013
A tsunamic deluge of monsoon rains threatens Pakistan once again, floods have affected another 7.4million people this year, while twenty million people are still struggling to cope with the devastation...
Opinion
Balochistan File
by: Saba Imtiaz & Madeeha Ansari
Date: November 18, 2013
The roots of violence in Balochistan can be traced to multiple sources, from political unrest, to sectarian strife, to a severe development deficit. In two parallel analyses, JI provides an...
Opinion
Year in Review 2010: Pakistan’s Continuing Flood Crisis
by: Erum Haider
Date: November 18, 2013
The monsoon floods that hit Pakistan in July 2010 killed 1,752 people and affected nearly 18.1 million across the length of the country. Many of the deaths were reported in...
Opinion
Rule of Law
by: Erum Haider
Date: November 18, 2013
No society has ever attained a perfect realization of the rule of law. But when plotting 35 countries on an objective scale, Pakistan is dangerously close to perfect failure, scoring...
Opinion
National Plans for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation
by: Nadeem Ahmed
Date: November 18, 2013
In the days and weeks after the floods it has been suggested that the government's response was lacking, or that coordination mechanisms were weak. These are unfair remarks - the...
Opinion
A guilty witness to the flood exodus
by: Nasim Zehra
Date: November 18, 2013
It was around sunset and I was watching the floodwater spread to Tando Hafiz Shah. The small town in southern Sindh with an estimated population of 50,000 was almost completely...
Opinion
Pakistan Flood Recovery: Can Zardari Deliver Aid?
by: Shuja Nawaz
Date: November 18, 2013
The current flood in Pakistan is the worst ever-natural disaster to strike that country even as it is fighting an existential threat from a major Taliban insurgency inside its Western...
Opinion
Democracy at the brink?
by: Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi
Date: November 18, 2013
Daily Times 26th September, 2010 Democracy is a joint exercise of different state institutions and the political class with an emphasis on constitutionalism, the rule of law and respect for democratic...
Opinion
Year in Review 2010: Attacks on Shrines and Education
Date: November 11, 2013
In 2010, Pakistan witnessed a startling increase in the scale of attacks on shrines of Sufi saints throughout the country. Attacking shrines is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan "”...
Opinion
Year in Review 2010: Militancy and the fight for internal security
by: Erum Haider
Date: October 31, 2013
Pakistan’s struggle for internal security entered a new phase in 2010 as the US and its allies increased pressure on Afghanistan with the announcement of the deployment of 30,000 troops...
Opinion
Policies Without Direction
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 10, 2013
Anyone in Pakistan who dabbles in the lexicon of urbanomics will be the first to admit one of two things: that cities are like living organisms that need sophisticated delivery...
Opinion
Spitballing the endgame
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: March 26, 2013
The picture is depressingly familiar: with another warm-weather fighting season upon Afghanistan, efforts to crowd-source an international fall guy for a war gone south is disingenuously pitting public opinion against...
Opinion
Jinnah’s Pakistan cannot be abandoned
by: Raza Rumi
Date: August 11, 2012
This August has been cruel. Haunting images of Sindhi Hindus, essential to the cultural reality and demography of the province, leaving the country [i] shook those who believe that Pakistan belongs...
Opinion
Anatomy of a Gang Rape
by: Urooj Zia
Date: April 25, 2011
After almost nine years spanning multiple courts of Pakistan, gang-rape victim Mukhtar Mai’s legal battle against her rapists finally came to an end on 21 April 2011 in the apex...
Opinion
Pakistan: A Transitional Polity
by: Raza Rumi
Date: August 18, 2010
Pakistan’s existentialist crisis is no longer a strictly Pakistani issue. Its potential repercussions have emerged as a cornerstone of global debates on regional stability and international concerns on terrorism and...
