Pakistan is no longer just reacting to events. It is increasingly being seen as a country around which events may be organised. Islamabad is emerging as a possible venue, Pakistani channels as useful, and names such as Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and JD Vance suggest that the diplomatic centre of gravity may, however tentatively, be shifting toward Pakistan.
Separatism rarely begins with a declaration. It begins with a sentence that sounds almost reasonable in a frightened place: we cannot live under them. We, as Pakistanis, know this better than anyone.
Manipur has stopped behaving like a state and started behaving like a border. When a cabinet changes land like a provocation and a confidence vote inside the Assembly cannot calm the street outside, the idea of “Republic of Manipur” stops being metaphor and starts sounding like a warning.
While the BLA's violence seeks to manufacture inevitability in Balochistan, the answers it receives from Pakistan collapse distance and deny it spectacle it craves so dearly—time and time again.
Davos was not a redemption arc but a stress test. Pakistan did not arrive seeking applause or indulgence, but to demonstrate whether discipline could finally replace denial. What mattered was constraint—and the recognition that the old escape routes no longer exist.
There is a certain discipline in Ahmed Sharif’s choice of words as of late. Melodrama is avoided, but denial is not indulged either. If Pakistan is to argue its case internationally, he suggests that it must first lay out its qualms.
Imran Khan's sons' claims are cinematic, emotive, and tailor-made for headlines. They are also, on the evidence presented, not proven — and that distinction is the difference between responsible commentary and propaganda laundering.
From Haripur to Lahore, the ballot box has rebuked anti-state theatrics and KP misgovernance, tightening PML-N’s grip on a weary electorate, as PTI’s agitation and foreign-amplified campaigns collide with reality and by-election voters turn to order over unrest.
Devolution that stops at the provincial secretariat is not devolution; it is merely colonialism with a different accent. A Mirpuri airport, a Multani university and a Gwadar harbour are not vanity projects; they are stress tests of whether the new map actually serves the periphery.
A state which refuses to distinguish between the vulnerable and the weaponised is not compassionate: it is careless with its own survival. Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, wagered the nation's security on charisma and sentiment, where leverage, verification, and distance were required. In pursuit of his own love affair with the Taliban, he was blind to all three.
