The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The project provides multiple benefits not just to China and Pakistan but to the whole region. However, the project faces multiple hindrances due to the opposition of different regional and extra-regional state and non-state actors. Different terrorist organizations have targeted Chinese engineers working on the CPEC multiple times, allegedly, at the behest of rival states…

In the past few months, Pak-Afghan relations have witnessed severe strain due to rising terrorist attacks in Pakistan. TTP, BLA, and ISKP hold safe havens in Afghanistan. Both sides blamed each other for the security lapse. Pakistan even conducted aerial strikes in Afghanistan on the safe havens of TTP. The Taliban government in Afghanistan was reluctant to cooperate with Pakistan over this issue. However, both sides have recently decided on security cooperation over the issue of across-the-border terrorism…

Recently, an international investigative journalism report, aptly titled “Dubai Unlocked,” has revealed that some infamous and influential people hold real estate worth around $400 billion in Dubai. This investigative report has exposed the details of properties owned by some members of the global elite, including money launderers, famous politicians, criminals, and sanctioned individuals…

It should be recalled that Pakistan held general elections on 8 February this year, the official results of which were announced a month later. As none of the country’s three main political forces won the necessary majority in parliament, two of them, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan People’s Party, formed a very tentative coalition to create the institutions of power. The leaders of these parties shared the posts of prime minister and president. The former was filled by Shehbaz Sharif after a six-month resignation, while Asif Ali Zardari, who had held the post from 2008 to 2013, became President…

The visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Pakistan, days after the Israeli attack on Iran, holds immense significance for multiple reasons. Iran is considered the strongest rival of Israel in the Middle East. However, Israel’s aid by regional countries in neutralizing Iranian missiles and drones fired by Iran posits that Iran does not enjoy significant relations with the regional countries…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement in March 2024 for the release of the remaining $1.1 billion out of the total $3 billion bailout package. The 9-month bailout package was sought by the Pakistani government last year to avert the sovereign debt. The country has been dependent on IMF loans for decades to fuel its staggering economy. This was Pakistan’s 24^th engagement with the Washington-based lender…

Pakistan is one of the few countries which have not accepted Israel. The country’s opposition to Israel even predates the independence of Pakistan as Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of the country, was always against the creation of a Zionist state in Palestine. He even declared Israel to be an illegitimate state. Pakistan’s foreign policy towards Israel today is predicated on the fundamental principles laid out by its founding fathers…

The results of the general elections held on 8 February for the lower house of the central parliament (“National Assembly”) and the assemblies of the country’s four major administrative units – Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh – have been officially announced in Pakistan. As none of the political organisations that contested the elections won a convincing majority in the new central parliament, a ruling coalition has been formed between two parties…

On 18^th March 2024, Pakistan conducted airstrikes inside Afghanistan, targeting the sanctuaries of commanders of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The attacks were conducted in retaliation to the suicide attack conducted on a military check post in North Waziristan, a Pakistani district located near the Pak-Afghan border, which resulted in the death of seven Pakistani soldiers. Pakistani officials have claimed the death of 8 terrorists in the retaliatory airstrikes…

For the last few years, Pakistan has shifted its foreign policy from the one based on geopolitics to the one based on geo-economics. A long history of terrorism, political turbulence, and economic instability, caused by Pakistan’s involvement in regional conflicts, were the key drivers behind this shift in the foreign policy outlook of the nation. The decision was announced in Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) document in December 2021…

The United States emerged as the sole superpower of the world after the end of the Cold War. Contrary to its promise of an inclusive and peaceful world order, the US emerged as the key source of wars, conflicts, and instability around the world in this unipolar world. The United States’ unilateral decisions to wage wars on different countries, especially Iraq, and its involvement in spurring chaos in the Middle East deteriorated its image around the globe…

Voting in Pakistan’s much-anticipated general election on 8 February began at 8 a.m., but in the meantime, mobile networks were shut down across the country for more than 26 hours. Pakistanis are not used to network blackouts. There is often no connectivity during bank holidays parades, Muslim Eid and Ashura, protests criticising the ruling establishment and political rallies. Last year alone, mobile networks were down for four days after protests erupted when former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested outside the Islamabad High Court despite…