Rhetoric of Condemnation

The recurring pattern of diplomatic condemnations following security breaches is a tired ritual that fails to address the structural realities of regional instability. While official statements are issued to express concern over the sponsorship of terrorism, the lack of tangible consequences for the perpetrators renders these gestures largely performative. Condemnation is not enough; the international community is not doing its share to bring real pressure on both Afghanistan and India, who continue to sponsor instability to serve their own strategic interests.


For too long, the global powers have treated regional tensions as a manageable nuisance rather than a systemic failure. When the sponsorship of militants is treated as a diplomatic variable rather than a violation of sovereignty, it encourages the perpetrators to continue their activities. The irony is that the world expects stability in a region where the primary actors are permitted to undermine it without facing any significant diplomatic or economic cost.

A lesson from 1979
The current state of affairs suggests that the international community is content with a status quo of managed chaos. This approach is a failure of leadership, as it allows the sponsors of terrorism to operate with a sense of impunity. Without the imposition of sanctions or the demand for verifiable changes in foreign policy, the cycle of instability will persist. The gap between the rhetoric of peace and the reality of sponsorship is a void that can only be filled by decisive action. Until empty words are backed by action, the region will remain a playground for proxy wars, and the promise of lasting peace will remain a diplomatic fiction.

Forensic Farce

Ali Mir’s exhumation scandal in Karachi, where a body was unearthed for forensic verification only to expose a trail of administrative negligence and procedural chaos, is a grim reflection of the state’s institutional decay. When the process of seeking truth through forensics becomes a spectacle of incompetence, it reveals a systemic failure that extends far beyond a single case. Once more, we see what an outdated and poorly professionalised media-legal system produces.


The absurdity of the situation lies in the gap between the gravity of the act, exhuming a human body, and the amateurism with which it was executed. Such a process should be a precise scientific operation, yet it frequently descends into a bureaucratic circus. This is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a wider malaise where forensic standards are treated as suggestions rather than mandates. The calls for reform must be heard all the more loudly, as the current state of affairs suggests that the judiciary and the executive are content with a system that is functional in name only.

A lesson from 1979
The failure to maintain a chain of custody or ensure the integrity of forensic evidence is not a technical glitch; it is a professional failure. When the legal system allows for such lapses, it effectively tells the public that the truth is a variable, not a constant. A sustainable judicial framework requires a transition from performative procedures to a rigorous, professionalised forensic standard.

Onwards and Upwards

The world mourns the end of a legendary career as Broad Peak claims the lives of Nirmal Purja and nine other climbers. From Kathmandu to Hunza, candles have been lit, prayers offered and families left waiting for bodies that the mountain has not yet surrendered.

Purja was no ordinary mountaineer. His ascent of the world’s 14 highest peaks in just over six months transformed the boundaries of what was considered humanly possible. His participation in the first winter ascent of K2 further established him among the defining climbers of his generation. Alongside him were elite Nepali guides, international climbers and Pakistan’s own Sohail Sakhi, whose funeral prayers in absentia were offered in Aliabad.

A lesson from 1979
Such is the life of those who pursue the summits of these granite giants. Mountaineering is not merely a sport or a contest of physical endurance. For many, it is a spiritual journey, almost religious in its intensity, undertaken with the knowledge that the next breath may be the last. Yet the danger does not diminish the attraction. It deepens the mystery and inspires others to follow.

Those who perish on the mountains do not disappear from memory. Muhammad Ali Sadpara remains an icon in the hearts of Pakistanis, representing courage, humility and an extraordinary bond with the high peaks. Purja, Sakhi and the others lost on Broad Peak will similarly live on through the people they inspired and the barriers they broke.

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Pakistan, home to the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Pamirs and some of the world’s most formidable mountains, is a mecca for mountaineers. The federal and regional governments recognise the importance of this legacy, but every tragedy must renew the commitment to stronger rescue coordination, weather monitoring, medical facilities, trained high-altitude teams and reliable logistical support. The risks can never be eliminated, but accidents can be better anticipated and their consequences mitigated.

Dignity Overdue

Sanitation workers are the backbone of Pakistan’s public institutions. They perform difficult, dangerous and essential work that few others are willing to undertake. By cleaning wards, disinfecting washrooms, collecting waste and safely disposing of hazardous material, they create the basic conditions upon which all other human activity depends.


Yet they remain among the most underpaid, under-protected and underappreciated workers in the country. Their labour is noticed only when it stops, while their hardship is routinely ignored.

The failure to pay sanitation workers at the Taxila Tehsil Headquarters Hospital and Wah General Hospital for three months is therefore not merely an administrative lapse. It is a profound moral failure. Exploiting those who already occupy the lowest rungs of the employment ladder amounts to treading upon the downtrodden for institutional convenience.

A lesson from 1979
The workers have not gone on strike casually. They say repeated appeals to the contractor and the authorities produced no lasting response. Their protest is not about securing privileges, allowances or promotions. It is about feeding their children and receiving wages already earned through honest labour.

The explanation that funds have not been released because of the closure of the fiscal year is unacceptable. Bureaucratic delays cannot be allowed to deprive workers of food, rent and basic household expenses. Senior officials and highly paid professionals continue to receive their salaries; there is no justification for making the poorest employees bear the burden of administrative failure.

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The Punjab government must intervene immediately, release the outstanding funds and ensure that every worker is paid in full. It must also investigate how outsourced contracts are managed and establish safeguards preventing such delays from recurring.

Sanitation work must be treated as a profession deserving protection, fair wages and respect. The workers must be paid, their dignity restored and those responsible for this travesty held accountable.

Suffocating Srinagar

Washington’s Necessity

The United States may have withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan in 2021, but it has not ceased to exercise considerable influence over the country or the wider international response to militancy emerging from its territory. Washington retains diplomatic, financial and institutional tools that can shape the behaviour of the Taliban authorities and restrict the activities of terrorist organisations operating across the region.

The fourth US-Pakistan counter-terrorism dialogue is therefore a welcome development. The explicit identification of the T Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, the Balochistan Liberation Army, and ISIS-K as common threats is particularly significant. Pakistan has long argued that these organisations are not merely domestic irritants but regional security challenges requiring coordinated international action.

Much of the global machinery capable of damaging terrorist organisations still runs through Washington. Sanctions against financiers and facilitators, restrictions on travel and financial transactions, intelligence cooperation, multilateral pressure and the international delegitimisation of militant groups are all areas in which American support remains consequential. Islamabad must use its renewed engagement with Washington to ensure that those supporting terrorism against Pakistan face real diplomatic and financial costs.

Such cooperation does not require Pakistan to abandon its broader geopolitical orientation towards China. Foreign policy need not be reduced to a choice between competing powers. Pakistan can maintain its strategic partnership with Beijing while working with Washington where interests overlap, particularly in counter-terrorism and regional stability.

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The parallel progress on a reciprocal trade framework is equally important. Security partnerships rarely endure when they are disconnected from wider economic interests. Expanded trade, investment and commercial cooperation can provide the bilateral relationship with the stability needed to sustain counter-terrorism coordination beyond temporary crises.

Pakistan and the United States have a clear area of mutual interest. That opportunity must now be converted into practical action against the networks threatening Pakistan’s security.

Weaponising Migration

Regardless of one’s views on economic migration or refugee policy, the scenes witnessed in Ceuta cannot be described as an ordinary border crisis. The organised movement of tens of thousands of people towards the Spanish enclave, amid truckloads of migrants being brought to the frontier and encouraged to cross, bears the disturbing hallmarks of a premeditated attempt to overwhelm another country’s borders.

The human cost has been appalling. At least 72 people are reported to have died, many while attempting to swim around the border barriers separating Morocco from Ceuta. An unimaginable tragedy.

Those celebrating the crisis have hardly attempted to conceal their motives. Israeli social media accounts, including that of Yair Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s son, gleefully and proudly portrayed the influx as “revenge” against Spain for its principled position on Gaza. Such reactions expose the dangerous mentality behind the weaponisation of migration: civilians are pushed across borders, communities are destabilised, and human suffering is applauded as a tool of political punishment.

It is also significant that the United States and Israel had recently thrown their support behind Moroccan claims involving Spain’s North African enclaves. Given Spain’s comments, the political context cannot be ignored.

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The consequences will extend far beyond Ceuta. The crisis has already reverberated across Europe, where governments are tightening borders, and right-wing movements will inevitably use the episode to inflame hostility towards migrants. The victims will once again be ordinary refugees and economic migrants, who will face greater suspicion because states and political actors have chosen to use migration as a weapon.

Israel must be held responsible for encouraging and celebrating the weaponisation of migration against Spain. Migration cannot be allowed to become a tool for punishing governments that take principled positions on Gaza or any other international issue. The dead deserve accountability, and Europe deserves protection from manufactured instability.

Welcome Exemption

Whether through good fortune or quiet diplomatic effort, Pakistan appears to have escaped the broad sweep of the United States’ new visa bond policy. The programme, which took effect on August 1, allows US consular officers to demand refundable deposits of between $10,000 and $20,000 from selected business and tourist visa applicants belonging to 50 listed countries.


Pakistan is not among them.

This exclusion comes as a considerable relief. Pakistan has a large and influential diaspora in the United States, while thousands of families, professionals, students and businesspeople regularly travel between the two countries. A bond running into thousands of dollars would have placed US travel beyond the reach of many ordinary Pakistanis, even if the amount were eventually refundable.

A lesson from 1979
Such a requirement would not merely have inconvenienced individual travellers. It could have slowed commercial engagement, discouraged tourism, disrupted family connections and weakened the cultural and economic exchanges that sustain relations between the two countries. At a time when Pakistan needs greater investment, remittances and international mobility, any additional barrier would have been damaging.

Other South Asian countries have not been as fortunate. Bangladesh and Nepal are included in the programme, while India, like Pakistan, has been excluded. The disparity should remind Islamabad that visa regimes are increasingly being used as instruments of immigration control and diplomatic pressure.

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Pakistan must therefore not treat its present exemption as permanent or guaranteed. The United States has justified the bond programme on the basis of visa overstay rates and compliance with immigration rules. Pakistani authorities must cooperate closely with Washington, improve documentation standards and discourage abuse of visitor visas.

At the same time, Islamabad should use the diplomatic goodwill generated by its recent outreach to the Trump administration. Pakistan’s overtures have created valuable space in Washington, but goodwill matters only when it is converted into practical gains.

Widening Rift

For a brief period, it appeared that relations between India and Bangladesh were finally moving towards repair. The revolutionary upheaval that removed Sheikh Hasina had given way to a more conventional political arrangement, while the realities of geography, trade and regional security encouraged both governments to adopt a forward-looking approach.

That progress now appears to be in danger.

The decision to allow Hasina to deliver a virtual address from New Delhi on the anniversary of the uprising that overthrew her government will inevitably be viewed in Dhaka as a hostile political act. Although the event is not being organised by the Indian government, New Delhi cannot pretend that political activities conducted from its territory by Bangladesh’s deposed leader carry no diplomatic consequences.

A lesson from 1979
Hasina is not merely another exiled politician. She faces serious charges in Bangladesh, has been convicted over the deadly crackdown of 2024 and remains the subject of a formal extradition request. India’s continued protection of her has become the central obstacle to a genuine improvement in bilateral relations.

The consequences of mishandling the matter will extend beyond bilateral tensions. Bangladesh is already strengthening its engagement with China, while its historically difficult relationship with Pakistan has also begun to show signs of improvement. Every perceived act of Indian interference will encourage Dhaka to move further in both directions.

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India may believe that sheltering Hasina gives it leverage over Bangladesh’s political future. In reality, it risks producing the opposite result by intensifying anti-Indian sentiment and pushing Dhaka closer to Beijing and Islamabad.

Regional relationships cannot be rebuilt through contradictory signals. If New Delhi genuinely wants a fresh beginning with Bangladesh, it must prevent its territory from becoming a platform for political activity aimed at destabilising or embarrassing the government in Dhaka.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has declared an early political victory in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the polling trends appear to justify his confidence. With the PML-N securing a simple majority according to unofficial results, the party is poised to form another regional government aligned with the ruling coalition at the centre.


Yet the celebrations should remain restrained. The election process is not complete, and neither was it entirely smooth. Polling was disrupted in several constituencies, allegations of rigging and interference have been levelled, and armed clashes were reported. These are not minor blemishes that can simply be dismissed in the glow of electoral victory. The PML-N may have secured the numbers, but it must now work to secure public confidence and rebuild trust.

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AJK shares several of the governance and development challenges faced by Gilgit-Baltistan, including weak infrastructure, limited economic opportunities, administrative inefficiency and dependence upon Islamabad. However, its political circumstances are more complicated. Its constitutional position, the presence of refugee constituencies and its legal and political connection with India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir make every internal dispute particularly sensitive.

The controversy surrounding the refugee seats and the protests led by the now-proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee demonstrate that deeper questions of representation and legitimacy cannot be addressed through force or prohibition alone. They require dialogue, constitutional clarity and political accommodation.

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The PML-N must therefore treat its apparent victory not as an opportunity to expand patronage, but as a mandate to restore stability. Its first task should be to reduce tensions, reach out to political opponents and rebuild trust in the electoral process. Thereafter, it must turn urgently towards employment, infrastructure, public services and institutional reform.

Winning an election gives a party the authority to govern. Governing fairly, healing divisions and delivering prosperity are what ultimately give that authority legitimacy.

Reforming the Executive


The opposition of Provincial Management Service officers to the Punjab government’s plan to create 101 Additional Assistant Commissioner posts comes as no surprise. Seldom has the officer class accepted changes to its power structure without consultation or its express approval. Yet the government’s failure to bring serving officers on board before announcing such a substantial administrative restructuring reflects a serious weakness in the reform process.


The objective of strengthening field administration and improving public service delivery is commendable. Citizens frequently face delays in revenue matters, price control, regulatory enforcement and other routine administrative functions. Increasing the number of officers could help reduce this burden, but merely creating new posts will not automatically resolve the underlying problems.

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The concerns raised by PMS officers therefore deserve serious consideration. If existing bottlenecks in approvals and decision-making remain untouched, more AACs may simply divide authority further while increasing the administrative workload. If postings and transfers continue to be made at the whims of the elected government, the additional positions could create greater room for political favouritism and vested interests.

There are also legitimate questions about cost, career progression and institutional overlap. The government must explain how the new posts will interact with the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority and whether their functions will duplicate those already being performed by other departments. Poorly paid or professionally frustrated officers operating under political pressure remain vulnerable to corruption and misuse of authority.

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The government should therefore engage the PMS association before proceeding. Consultation must not become a veto over reform, but those working in the field possess experience that policymakers cannot afford to dismiss. Strengthening the executive service may be a sound idea, but it must be pursued through institutional consensus, financial planning and structural reform rather than the simple creation of additional posts.

Beyond the Sting


The Federal Investigation Agency’s operation at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences has exposed a dangerous vulnerability in the country’s medico-legal system. An official posing as an injured person was allegedly able to secure a fake medico-legal certificate in exchange for marked currency, leading to the arrest of three suspects and the recovery of old records.


Such an operation should not be treated as a one-off triumph. A sting may identify individuals willing to abuse their authority, but it also reveals the institutional weaknesses that made the abuse possible. The arrests must therefore mark the beginning of a wider reform process rather than the end of the government’s response.

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Ironically, those associated with the institution appear more willing to discuss systemic reform than the authorities themselves. Senior doctors have correctly called for the modernisation of medico-legal departments and the criminal justice system. Their concerns deserve serious attention.

Medico-legal certificates can influence criminal investigations, court proceedings, compensation claims and the liberty of accused persons. A fraudulent certificate can protect an offender, implicate an innocent person or distort the course of justice. Yet these highly sensitive responsibilities are often handled without specialised staff, proper oversight or modern systems of verification.

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Doctors assigned medico-legal duties should possess relevant postgraduate training in forensic medicine and medical jurisprudence. Police officers dealing with inquests, post-mortem documentation and medico-legal cases must also receive specialised instruction. Dedicated forensic units should be established in major hospitals, while records should be digitised and subject to independent audits. International models may offer useful lessons, but reforms must be adapted to Pakistan’s legal and administrative realities.

Responsible governments do not merely celebrate successful raids. They study the vulnerabilities revealed by them and close the loopholes. The Pims operation has sounded an alarm. Parliament, the health authorities and law-enforcement institutions must now ensure it leads to lasting reform.

Accessibility Governance

Gandhara Legacy

Gandhara heritage is a critical step toward reclaiming a legacy that has long been neglected, and by formalising the preservation and promotion of these ancient sites, the state is finally acknowledging that its identity is not a monolith. The importance of this initiative cannot be overstated; preserving the Gandhara heritage is not merely an act of nostalgia, but a strategic investment in the country’s cultural capital.


The benefits of this preservation extend far beyond the local population and future generations. Gandhara was once a global centre of learning and art, and its preservation impacts the cultural collective knowledge of the entire world. To allow these sites to decay is to permit a hole to open in the history of human civilisation. When the state protects these monuments, it is not just saving stone and mortar, but safeguarding the evidence of a time when the region was a beacon of intellectual and artistic synthesis.

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To ensure this strategy is not merely a performative exercise, the focus must shift toward sustainable tourism, rigorous academic research, and the integration of these sites into the national educational curriculum. A focus on these key areas will transform these sites from stagnant ruins into active drivers of economic and intellectual growth. This, in turn, substantially enhances the soft power of the country, projecting an image of a sophisticated, pluralistic society that values its historical depth.

A long-term approach to heritage requires that the Gandhara legacy is integrated into the national brand, ensuring that the world views the country not just through the lens of current crises, but through its ancient contributions to humanity.

FIFA’s Retreat

FIFA’s decision to scrap its proposed private investment plan following fierce backlash from officials worldwide is a necessary correction of a misguided strategy. By abandoning the attempt to sell stakes in its competitions to private equity, the organisation has avoided a trajectory that would have prioritised corporate profit over the integrity of the sport. Agreeing with this decision is a matter of common sense; the incorporation of private stakes was a transparent move to benefit a select few, while the fans would have inevitably paid the price through higher costs and a deteriorated experience.


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The logic behind private investment in sports is often a thinly veiled attempt to commodify passion. When the primary objective shifts from the growth of the game to the maximisation of shareholder dividends, the fan is reduced from a stakeholder to a mere consumer. The risk was not just a rise in ticket prices, but a loss of control over the very soul of the competition.

This reversal serves as a potent example of how collective resistance can check the impulses of a global monopoly. The ability of organisations like UEFA to take a stand against FIFA demonstrates that the concentration of power is not inevitable. When stakeholders align to reject a flawed model, they prove that there is a viable way to resist the predatory nature of private equity.

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A sustainable future for global sport requires a commitment to the community over the corporation, ensuring that the governance of the game remains transparent and accountable to those who actually play and watch it.

Breadbasket Gamble

Recent dismissal of eight food officials following the discovery of a five-billion-rupee wheat misappropriation scam in Karachi is a stark reminder of the systemic rot within the state’s supply chain. While the removal of these officials is a necessary first step, it serves as a confession of the profound dysfunction that allows such massive theft to occur. For an agrarian, wheat-producing country to face artificial shortages is a travesty, a failure of governance that borders on the criminal.

The appropriation of the nation’s food supply is a financial crime; and a direct assault on the food security of the most vulnerable citizens. When officials manipulate the availability of a staple crop for personal gain, they are essentially gambling with the hunger of the populace. Those who profit from the nation’s food supply must be dealt with severely, as mere dismissal is a lenient punishment for the scale of the theft. Without the threat of rigorous prosecution and the recovery of stolen assets, dismissals are nothing more than a bureaucratic reshuffling.

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The irony is that the country continues to struggle with wheat imports and price volatility, while internal misappropriation creates a crisis of scarcity. This reveals a system where the lack of transparency is not an accident, but a feature that benefits the predatory elite. The recurring nature of these scams suggests that the problem is not a few bad apples, but a decayed orchard.

The goal must be the complete elimination of the discretion that allows officials to manipulate supply. Until the state implements a system of absolute accountability, the citizens will continue to pay the price for the greed of those tasked with their protection.

Tragedy by Negligence

Fatalities and disappearances resulting from a coal mine explosion in Pakistan, where at least eleven perished and dozens remain trapped, are a grim reminder of the cost of systemic negligence. With the revelation that a methane gas leak triggered the explosion, the tragedy shifts from an unfortunate accident to a preventable disaster. Methane leaks are not unpredictable anomalies; they are the result of failing to maintain safety standards and ignoring the basic protocols of mine ventilation. In such a scenario, heads must roll, as the loss of life is a direct consequence of a failure in oversight.

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When safety measures are treated as optional expenses rather than fundamental requirements, the resulting deaths are not accidents, they are a form of corporate manslaughter. The irony is that the same authorities who tout the importance of the mining sector for national energy security are often the same ones who overlook the hazardous conditions in which the workers operate.

The failure to implement basic gas detection and ventilation systems is a damning indictment of the management. For the workers, the mine is a place of survival, but for the administrators, it is often just a ledger of profits and losses. When a preventable leak kills eleven people, the blame lies not with the gas, but with the individuals who allowed the risk to persist.

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Accountability must be enforced through rigorous legal action rather than mere internal inquiries. The goal must be a transition from a system of reactive grief to one of proactive safety. Until the management is held criminally liable for these failures, the cycle of preventable deaths will continue to haunt the mining industry.