Balochistan Bells

Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has once again placed Balochistan at the centre of the national conversation, stressing the province’s permanent bond with Pakistan, the promise of its youth and the danger posed by foreign-backed militancy. The remarks become all the more important considering how Balochistan today sits at the intersection of Pakistan’s hardest security challenge and some of its largest economic ambitions. The question, however, remains whether the state can convert its military resilience into political confidence and economic ownership.

That Baloch youth do not lack talent cannot be stressed enough, but neither can the fact that they lack pathways into the economy and the state. Education, technical training, local hiring, business credit and a visible share in major projects should not and cannot remain peripheral to policy. Development is both a constitutional obligation and a strategic necessity.


At the same time, grievance cannot become a euphemism for terrorism. Groups that pull passengers from buses, murder labourers, attack policemen and soldiers and sabotage infrastructure are not advancing Baloch rights. They are shrinking the very economic space in which those rights can acquire substance. Political grievances belong in politics. The army and law-enforcement agencies are therefore performing the indispensable function of preserving the security without which politics, investment and ordinary life become impossible.Booking Historical Guided Tours

Nor is foreign sponsorship somehow disproved by the existence of local discontent. External actors rarely need to invent fault lines as they exploit those already available. Balochistan’s coastline, minerals, borders and role in regional connectivity give Pakistan’s adversaries obvious incentives to keep the province unstable.

But this is precisely why the state must examine its own vulnerabilities. Too much of Balochistan’s deprivation is also the product of weak provincial governance, patronage, elite capture and development spending that does not reach the citizen. It is convenient to blame Islamabad for every failure, just as it is convenient to blame every grievance on foreign manipulation. Neither explanation, on its own, is sufficient.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, these pages must once again remind those at the helm that the real test begins after a security operation succeeds. The army can clear territory and dismantle networks but civilian institutions must then fill that space with courts, schools, policing, health services and accountable local government. Otherwise, tactical victories remain vulnerable to political relapse.

Syria’s Symphony


Pakistan and Syria are trying to give their relationship a fresh start. The visit of Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani to Islamabad is important because it is the first foreign minister-level visit from Syria to Pakistan in almost 20 years.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held talks with Al-Shaibani on Thursday. The two sides discussed ways to improve political, economic and diplomatic cooperation. They also exchanged views on regional developments and other issues of common interest.

Syria is going through a difficult period and is trying to rebuild its institutions and economy. Pakistan, meanwhile, has consistently supported Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Islamabad has also called for an end to actions that could further destabilise the region.


The two ministers are also expected to discuss regional and international issues. The situation in the Middle East, Israeli military actions and the wider security environment are likely to remain important subjects.Geographic Reference

Pakistan recently condemned Israeli strikes on a Syrian military facility in Idlib, describing them as a violation of international law. Islamabad has warned that continued military action could deepen instability and increase the risk of a wider conflict.

Pakistan should use this opening to support Syria without becoming involved in rivalries. A balanced policy can protect Pakistan’s interests while helping promote stability. For Syria, ties with Pakistan can provide a channel for diplomatic engagement and economic cooperation. Regular contact will matter than symbolic visits.

Pakistan and Syria have longstanding political ties, but those ties need stronger economic and institutional foundations.

If the visit produces concrete agreements and regular engagement, it could mark the beginning of a new chapter in Pakistan-Syria relations. *

Pakistan Googled

Google has finally opened an office in Pakistan. This is good news. But let us be honest. It is late news too. Google says it has invested in Pakistan for over a decade. Yet it took ten years to open a local office here. Many other countries got this step much earlier. Pakistan’s tech workers and freelancers waited a long time for this simple thing.

Still, better late than never. Now that Google is here, both sides should look forward, not backward. Pakistan has a huge freelance economy. It has crossed one billion dollars this year alone. IT exports have grown by about 20 percent for two and a half years straight. This shows Pakistan’s young people are ready and skilled. Google’s office can help them grow even faster. It can bring more training, more jobs, and more investment into the local tech world.


But the government must also be careful. Minister Tallal Chaudhry spoke about proactive monitoring of social media. He said Pakistan’s circumstances are different because of terrorism concerns. This is a fair worry. Terrorists do misuse social media. But monitoring must not turn into heavy-handed control. Digital freedom and safety must go hand in hand. Too much control can scare away the same investors Pakistan is trying to attract.Geographic Reference

Google, on its side, must listen to local needs without giving up basic principles like free expression and privacy. A safe digital space should protect citizens, not silence them.

The Special Investment Facilitation Council and the IT ministry deserve credit for pushing this deal forward. Their teamwork brought Google to Pakistan’s doorstep. Now the real work begins. Both sides must build trust step by step. Pakistan needs Google’s technology and training. Google needs Pakistan’s growing market and talent. If they cooperate wisely, this late arrival can still turn into a strong partnership for the future. *

Claims and Flames

India’s latest accusations against Pakistan and its new documentary on Operation Sindoor point to the same problem: the growing use of security narratives for political purposes.South Asians & Diaspora

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim that more than 200 suspected militants arrested across 14 states had links to Pakistan has been rejected by Islamabad as baseless. Pakistan’s Foreign Office has rightly called for evidence rather than allegations. Serious accusations involving terrorism cannot be established through political statements alone.

The same principle should apply to India’s presentation of the 2025 military confrontation. A documentary can tell a story, but it cannot rewrite history. If Operation Sindoor is presented as an unquestionable Indian victory, then the military events that followed must also be examined honestly.

Pakistan’s position is that its armed forces responded effectively to the Indian offensive during Marka-e-Haq and subsequently carried out strikes against Indian military targets. Islamabad has also claimed that Indian aircraft were shot down. These claims, like India’s own claims of military success, deserve independent examination rather than blind acceptance or rejection.


What is particularly important is the timeline. Pakistan has questioned how India could present the May 7 operation as punishment for the Pahalgam attack when New Delhi later claimed to have identified and eliminated the alleged perpetrators on July 28. That question deserves a clear answer.

The reported references in the Indian documentary to Pakistani missiles and drones, Indian air-defence activity and communication between the two countries’ military commanders also suggest that the confrontation was more complicated than a simple victory narrative.

There is nothing unusual about governments presenting events in a way that strengthens national morale. But propaganda is not history, and cinematic reconstruction is not battlefield evidence.

Pakistan, too, must ensure that its own claims are supported by verifiable evidence. The credibility of any national narrative ultimately depends on facts.

The region needs accountability, not competing myths. The better course is simple: publish the evidence, examine the facts and let history judge the claims. *

Childhood Betrayed

The reported attempt to assault an 11-year-old girl in Ferozewala is deeply disturbing. An incident involving a child cannot be treated as just another crime story. It is an attack on the safety, dignity and future of a young life.

The alleged assault must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Children should be able to walk to a relative’s home, attend school and play in their neighbourhoods without fear of becoming victims of sexual violence. When an 11-year-old goes missing and is later found in a field with an alleged attacker, it exposes not only the cruelty of the accused but also the urgent need for stronger systems to protect children.

According to police, the suspect fled after being discovered but was later traced and arrested. This is the correct starting point: an allegation this serious must be investigated professionally, the evidence must be preserved, and the suspect must face due process and the law.

The medical findings, forensic evidence and witness statements should be examined carefully, and the investigation should be conducted with the utmost sensitivity towards the child.

But justice must not become another form of violence.

The recent use of alleged encounters and deaths in custody or during police operations raises an important question about the way Pakistan responds to heinous crimes.South Asians & Diaspora

The public understandably demands severe punishment for those who harm children. Yet punishment must come through courts, not through extrajudicial violence.

The Criminal Control Department or any other police unit must not be allowed to replace investigation and trial with an encounter.

If the suspect is guilty, he should receive the maximum punishment prescribed by law after a fair trial. That is stronger justice than simply killing a suspect. A court verdict establishes guilt, records the evidence and provides accountability. An encounter, by contrast, can destroy evidence, eliminate the possibility of a proper trial and raise serious questions about whether justice was actually served.

Deadline Denied


Iran has firmly rejected the suggestion that a 60-day deadline ever formed part of its agreement with the United States. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei made that clear on Monday, saying no such deadline appears in the actual text of the memorandum of understanding. Tehran, he stressed, will not bow to pressure or accept ultimatums; its decisions will be guided by national interests and security considerations, not by timelines imposed from Washington.

The point matters. The agreement was meant to create space for serious negotiations over sanctions relief and Iran’s nuclear programme. It was not supposed to become a countdown clock for renewed confrontation. Yet Washington’s subsequent insistence on a 60-day window has allowed an already fragile diplomatic understanding to become entangled in a dispute over terms that Tehran says were never agreed in the first place.

More damaging still is Iran’s assertion that the United States itself violated the understanding before formal negotiations could properly begin. Tehran argues that American actions undermined the very framework that was supposed to make talks possible. If that account is correct, Washington cannot credibly insist on compliance with a deadline that Iran says neither appears in the text nor survived the breakdown of the agreement itself.

The consequences are no longer confined to diplomatic language. Tensions have spread across the Gulf. Iranian forces have struck shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, while the United States has responded with military strikes on Iranian targets. Yemen’s Houthis have added another layer of danger through a naval blockade that has threatened yet another critical maritime route. Three Iranian pilots remain missing, while an oil spill has damaged the coastline of Qeshm Island and prompted demands from Tehran for accountability.

This is no longer simply a disagreement over diplomatic interpretation. It is a dangerous spiral intertwining global energy markets, maritime security and the stability of the wider region. The deeper problem is not merely the rhetoric surrounding deadlines, but the collapse of trust before meaningful talks could even begin.

The world cannot afford to watch the situation drift further towards open conflict. Mediators, including the Gulf states and other international actors that helped facilitate the original understanding, must now work to restore a negotiating channel. Waiting will only deepen the damage. Genuine mediation, rather than artificial deadlines and pressure tactics, remains the only credible route back to the table. *

Khawarij Barrage

Security forces are doing brave and necessary work. The recent operations in Kharan and Khuzdar demonstrate the seriousness of the campaign against terrorism. Seven militants were killed in Kharan and another 10 in Khuzdar.

According to officials, they were involved in extortion, kidnapping, targeted killings and preparations for suicide attacks. Removing such threats before they can strike saves innocent lives. Operation Radd-ul-Fitna 3 is therefore a necessary step and deserves national support.

These militants do not operate in isolation. Officials have repeatedly alleged that groups described as Fitna al-Khawarij and Fitna al-Hindustan receive external support, including from India. If so, the challenge goes beyond ordinary law and order. It becomes a question of national security and sovereignty.


But bullets and operations alone cannot solve the problem. The numbers tell a sobering story. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan together accounted for nearly 96 per cent of all violence-related deaths in the country during the second quarter of 2026.

Such a concentration of violence cannot be addressed through military means alone. It demands sustained political attention as well.

The government must therefore look beyond security operations. People in these provinces need jobs, functioning schools and hospitals, credible political representation and a meaningful voice in decision-making. Years of neglect and mistrust have created spaces that militant groups can exploit to recruit disaffected young men.

Corrective political measures, honest engagement with local communities and equitable development spending must accompany all military campaigns. None of this diminishes the necessity of confronting terrorists with force. It simply recognises that counterterrorism succeeds most decisively when militants are denied not only territory, but also the grievances and alienation they seek to exploit.

Security forces can win battles on the ground. Lasting peace in Balochistan and KP, however, will come only when the state also succeeds in winning the confidence of its own people. *

No Excuses

Armoured vehicles rolled past the former US embassy in Kabul on Saturday as the Taliban celebrated five years of what they call victory over foreign domination. But the parade was the easy part. Five years after seizing Kabul, the Taliban no longer have the luxury of presenting themselves as insurgents who inherited someone else’s failures. Afghanistan’s borders and security apparatus are theirs. So are the consequences.

The gravest indictment is their failure to prevent Afghan territory from becoming a sanctuary for forces threatening their neighbours, despite repeated assurances to the contrary. The latest UN Security Council-mandated monitoring report says the Taliban authorities have “continued their support” for the TTP. Even if Kabul claims to have relocated around 2,000 TTP fighters and Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has reportedly warned the group’s leadership to halt attacks against Pakistan, the threat has not diminished. The TTP’s command, training and logistical networks have not been dismantled, and the same UN assessment points to growing operational and facilitation links involving the TTP, Al Qaeda, IS-K and other militant actors.Geographic Reference

That contrast is particularly damning. The Taliban fight IS-K with considerable force because it threatens their own rule. What Pakistan is entitled to ask is why comparable resolve disappears when the militants concerned share ideological or historical affinities with the Taliban.

Its treatment of women provides an equally devastating record of government by exclusion. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are formally barred from secondary and higher education. UNESCO estimates that 2.4 million girls have been denied secondary education since 2021. More than 90 per cent of Afghan 10-year-olds cannot read a simple text, and the country could face a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.

Calling this a cultural preference has become untenable. It is state policy directed against half the population. The Taliban have issued more than 100 decrees restricting women and girls. Female employment stands at roughly 7 per cent, and UN experts have warned that this systematic and institutionalised exclusion may amount to gender apartheid.Pakistan regional tours

Afghanistan desperately needs doctors, nurses, teachers, entrepreneurs and skilled workers, yet its rulers have deliberately blocked millions of women from becoming any of these. The Taliban complain of poverty and isolation while pursuing policies guaranteed to produce more of both.

The humanitarian numbers expose the price. Around 21.9 million Afghans, or roughly 45pc of the population, require humanitarian assistance this year. Aid organisations say the number in need has risen by 3.5 million since the Taliban takeover, while the UN’s $1.7 billion humanitarian appeal is only about one-quarter funded. Donor fatigue is real, and ordinary Afghans should not be punished for the conduct of their rulers. But Kabul cannot endlessly blame outsiders for a humanitarian emergency while restricting female aid workers, hollowing out education and deliberately shrinking the productive capacity of its own population.

Reconstruction Test

The government’s assurance that Balochistan’s flood-hit families have not been abandoned would have carried greater weight had it not followed weeks of confusion over precisely who remains entitled to housing assistance.

The Planning Ministry insists that all 68,992 houses classified as fully damaged under the post-disaster assessment remain covered and that more than 26,000 have already been completed. It also argues, reasonably, that reconstruction cannot mean houses alone. Roads, irrigation channels, schools, health facilities and water systems are equally necessary if vulnerable communities are to withstand the next disaster.


The World Bank points to a considerably larger pool of verified eligible households and warns that 119,049 may now be without identified financing.

Post-disaster reconstruction is not an ordinary development scheme whose allocations may be shuffled without consequence. Once households have been surveyed, their losses verified and expectations of assistance formally created, any subsequent change in eligibility requires a clear explanation.Executive Branch

There is nothing inherently improper about reallocating resources within an integrated resilience programme. Rebuilding a house beside a broken irrigation system, inaccessible road and non-functional health facility would scarcely amount to resilience.

But suspected irregularities must be identified and dealt with individually. They cannot become a fog behind which legitimate beneficiaries disappear.

The stakes extend well beyond one housing programme. The 2022 floods inflicted damage and economic losses exceeding $30 billion, while resilient reconstruction needs were estimated above $16 billion. Pakistan has since made climate justice a central plank of its international diplomacy, arguing – with considerable justification – that countries contributing relatively little to global emissions should not be left alone to bear the costs of an increasingly hostile climate.

That case, however, carries obligations at home. Pakistan cannot persuasively ask the world to finance adaptation while allowing uncertainty over who receives financing secured in the name of climate-affected citizens.Pakistan travel guides

Pakistan has repeatedly proved adept at assembling pledges after catastrophe. The more difficult work begins afterwards as seemingly mundane administrative tasks often determine whether a billion-dollar programme becomes reconstruction or merely another entry in a donor spreadsheet.

There is a larger lesson here as we seek climate and development finance. Access to money will increasingly depend not simply on the country’s vulnerability but on its capacity to absorb funds credibly, execute projects efficiently and demonstrate results. Every poorly explained beneficiary list today risks weakening tomorrow’s case before international financiers.

Oslo in Islamabad

Barely three months after Narendra Modi made the first visit to Norway by an Indian prime minister in 43 years, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stood beside Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad on Thursday as the latter briefed him on Pakistan’s position that Jammu and Kashmir “remains one of the longstanding unresolved international disputes.”

Mr Eide also described Islamabad’s mediation as a “massive task” and said the work of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Mr Dar and Field Marshal Asim Munir amounted to a “service to the world.”

Norway had already declared full support for Pakistan-led mediation in April. Coming from a country that has invested decades in peace facilitation, from the Oslo process to Colombia and several other conflicts, such praise carries considerably more weight than routine diplomatic courtesy.

Norway is a founding NATO member, a close American ally and one of Europe’s consequential maritime and energy powers. Its foreign minister discussed regional security and expanding defence engagement at GHQ, while also expressing interest in Pakistan’s new trilateral defence arrangement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye–three states with which, he noted, Norway maintains close relations. Pakistan’s growing diplomatic profile is acquiring something more useful than favourable headlines: access across political and security establishments.Geographic Reference

Mr Dar also noted that Pakistan’s IT exports to Norway have increased more than fivefold in two years, even as bilateral trade remains well below potential. Cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, Norwegian expertise in shipping and maritime regulation, skilled-labour pathways and existing commercial links such as Yara’s partnership with Fauji Fertiliser offer considerably more substance. Mr Eide also described Norway’s Pakistani diaspora as an argument for deeper economic ties.

Pakistan has lately demonstrated that diplomatic usefulness can reopen doors once considered difficult to enter. The greater prize now lies in turning political access into investment, trade and sustained international attention to Pakistan’s own concerns. *

Need for Stability

The past few days have seen hundreds of fishing boats and trawlers leave Karachi, Gwadar and Jiwani on 40-day catch-and-sell voyages, hoping diplomacy will accomplish something before their holds are full. That wager looked shakier on Wednesday as Tehran said there had been “absolutely no progress” towards restoring the June understanding with Washington.

A day earlier, the maritime war had moved closer still when a US Navy helicopter disabled a Panama-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, around 70 nautical miles off Pakistan, for allegedly attempting to breach Washington’s blockade of Iranian ports.

Pakistan’s tuna trade with Iran has already been near a standstill since February. Recent strikes on Konarak, Pasabandar and Beris have made familiar Iranian markets increasingly dangerous, while three fishermen were killed and 15 injured in a US strike on a commercial pier at Sirik last month. The vulnerability, however, was built long before the missiles arrived. Fishermen say Iranian buyers can pay six or seven times Pakistani prices for tuna, while subsidised Iranian fuel has traditionally travelled in the opposite direction.Pakistan regional tours


That arrangement made commercial sense until geopolitics removed both ends of it. Weak domestic demand, inadequate cold storage and limited processing leave fishermen with few profitable alternatives once Iranian ports close.

A perishable catch cannot wait patiently for diplomacy. The Pakistan Boat Building Association says new orders have consequently fallen by as much as 90 per cent; an industry accustomed to building 25 to 30 large vessels annually for Iranian clients has received none for five months.

The wider export picture is more encouraging. The Maritime Affairs Ministry says seafood exports reached a record $568 million in FY26, with frozen fish alone earning $105 million. Pakistan has also widened access to foreign markets through improved certification and regulatory compliance. These gains expose how unevenly modernisation has travelled along the coast. Pakistan catches valuable fish, yet too much of the margin still depends on someone else’s cold chain, processing plant or market.Arabs & Middle Easterners

Iran should remain an important buyer. Geography gives Pakistan every reason to deepen commerce with its neighbour. Yet comparative advantage turns into dependence when the producer has nowhere else to sell.

The answer lies in giving Makran’s fishermen greater commercial time, in the form of reliable landing facilities, cold storage and primary processing around Gwadar, Pasni and Jiwani, which can preserve a catch long enough to find another buyer rather than surrender its value at the first closed border. *