Salman Rafi Sheikh is an assistant professor of politics at Lahore University of Management Sciences. He can be reached at: salmansheikh.ss11.sr@gmail.com
Not learning from the past, Islamabad is unleashing a new military operation against Baloch insurgency and Islamist extremism, continuing a vicious cycle of violence instead of addressing Baloch grievances through constitutional means
Mass protests and seething local resentment show that Islamabad continues to control and exploit the nominally autonomous region it calls Azad Kashmir, or “Free Kashmir”
Mired in economic and internal crises, Pakistan is primed for normalisation and trade with India – but Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, beholden to anti-Muslim politics, is failing to seize the chance
Pakistan’s military is obviously backing Nawaz Sharif and the PML–N, at the cost of Imran Khan and his PTI, but how long until it again falls out with an elected government it once supported?
As Kabul refuses to act against the TTP and Baloch militant groups, Pakistan is ending the support it has extended to the Taliban since 1994 and its welcome to refugees from Afghanistan since the 1980s
With Nawaz Sharif’s return, the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz is looking to strengthen a shaky grip over Punjab, and testing again its tricky relationship with the military establishment
New laws have created jurisdiction for the military to operate at both federal and provincial levels of government, with serious implications for Pakistan’s already precarious federation.
Baloch separatists and the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan are growing closer in Balochistan, threatening the Pakistan state and military as well as Chinese interests
The deal enhances the IMF’s economic and also political footprint, but leaves civil-military relations untouched and widens the gap between the elites and the masses
The standoff over elections in Punjab between the PML-N’s ruling coalition and Imran Khan’s PTI has intensified Pakistan’s multidimensional crisis, and may lead to sovereign default
