Author: Farwa Imtiaz

There is a version of Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) story that goes untold amid the noise of strikes, long marches and shutdown calls. It is the story of a federal government that, at considerable fiscal cost and genuine political will, has repeatedly delivered for the people of AJK, only to watch those deliveries get buried under fresh cycles of agitation orchestrated not by the public but by those who profit from the performance of suffering. The unrest building ahead of the June 9 strike call by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) is the latest and most cynical…

The Abraham Accords have been celebrated as a diplomatic triumph, a necessary step toward a peaceful and integrated Middle East. The proclaimed goals are seductive in their simplicity, including formal ties between Israel and Arab states, economic co-operation, tourism, security coordination against Iran and regional stability. The visible outcomes including direct flights from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi, trade agreements, defence partnerships, gleaming embassies, seem to confirm a new era of pragmatic coexistence. However, to accept these stated aims at face value is not merely naive. It is wilful blindness. The real architecture of the Abraham Accords has nothing to do with peace,…

The world came dangerously close to a catastrophe this year. The war between the United States and Iran began on February 28, 2026. It threatened to drag the entire Middle East into chaos. Oil prices surged. The Strait of Hormuz closed. Global markets shook, and the question on every diplomat’s mind was that who can bring these two sides together. The answer came from an unlikely place. Pakistan stepped forward as the primary mediator. Not the UN. Not the EU. Not China or Russia. Pakistan. That deserves a moment of recognition. “Pakistan actually achieved something many diplomats from wealthy democracies and…

In a development on Monday morning, Iran attacked the UAE through cruise missiles and armed drones targeting the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, which wounded employees, destroyed the fuel infrastructure, and tore apart the remaining fragile ceasefire in the area. The calculation in Abu Dhabi has changed, and the world needs to take note of that. However, this is no ordinary escalation. For one, the assault on Fujairah is an operationally meticulous gesture. Fujairah happens to be at the end of the strategically vital pipeline constructed by the UAE specifically to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz, since Iran has shut down this…

Pakistan’s Labour Journey: From Partition to Progress Every year on the first of May, the world stops to honour those who build it. The masons, the mill workers, the seamstresses, the sanitation crews, the millions of hands without which no economy moves. In Pakistan, Labour Day carries special weight. This is a country where the working class is not a statistical category. It is the backbone of the nation. As we celebrate May Day in 2026, it is prudent for us to reflect, not necessarily with any sense of nostalgia, but with honesty, on the progress that Pakistan has made…

I just woke up in Islamabad in the middle of the night, around 2 AM, and could not go back to sleep. I picked up my phone, started scrolling through the news, and the first big headline instantly made me feel proud to be Pakistani. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two top American envoys close to President Trump, are flying to Pakistan in the coming days. They are expected to sit down with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi right here in Islamabad. Once again, Pakistan is playing the role of the trusted bridge between the United States and Iran. When…

I have followed global leaders for years, but few have impressed me as deeply as Pakistan’s Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. In an era of loud rhetoric and fragile alliances, he has emerged as a master of pragmatic, results-driven diplomacy. Since his promotion to Field Marshal in May 2025, he has steadily reshaped Pakistan’s place in the world, not through grand speeches, but through quiet resolve, personal rapport, and strategic timing. He is, without doubt, my favourite Field Marshal in modern history. The story begins in the tense spring of 2025. As India-Pakistan tensions escalated into a brief but dangerous…

Islamabad does not feel ordinary these days. There is a quiet tension in the air, not the kind that comes from crisis, but the kind that signals something is actively unfolding behind closed doors. Conversations are happening, messages are being relayed, and somewhere within the capital’s corridors of power, the possibility of a breakthrough, however fragile, is being kept alive. Over the past few days, I have been tracking reports coming in from Reuters and echoed by other major outlets. The message is consistent that American and Iranian delegations may be preparing to return to Islamabad. The window being discussed…

As dawn broke on 8th April 2026, millions of Pakistanis woke up to extraordinary news as a two-week ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran, brokered quietly by Pakistan, had taken hold. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s announcement that delegations from the warring sides would sit down in Islamabad on 10th April for peace talks was a historic validation of Pakistan’s strategic relevance in a multipolar world. For weeks, the region had teetered on the edge of disaster. Israeli and American strikes had hammered Iranian nuclear and military sites. Iran responded with missiles, drones and, crucially, a near-total closure of the Strait of…

In the 1970s, Pakistan was firmly aligned with the West through its memberships in SEATO and CENTO, playing a vital role in the US-led strategy to contain communism in Asia and beyond. On the other hand, India took pride in its nonaligned status, leading the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and representing itself as a voice for the Global South, refusing to take sides with either the US-led capitalist bloc or the Soviet-led socialist bloc. Today, however, the scenario has strikingly reversed itself, with Pakistan playing the new role of a champion for non-alignment and a multi-aligned foreign policy, and India, under Modi,…