Owais Arshad @EastofAden

India, we are told, is rising and there are many signs that show this. Foremost among these is the fact that the Indian economy's growing importance has...

How does Pakistan continue to function? Its government often seems more interested in robbing the nation than governing, while its vast military is forever...

In 2007, the current Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, gloated that “We in Saudi Arabia are not observers in Pakistan, we are...

On March 24, the Pakistani province of Sindh announced it would introduce a speech by Muhammad Ali Jinnah into its curriculum for classes eight to ten. Jinnah...

Writing in the Express Tribune, retired Air Commodore Abdus Sattar Alvi recently recalled the Pakistani Air Force's participation in the 1973 war against...

On March 4, 2015, Abid Naseer, a Pakistani national, was found guilty by a court in Brooklyn of being an Al Qaeda operative who plotted to bomb the New York...

On March 4, 2015 reports surfaced that Abdul Majeed Malik, a retired Pakistani lieutenant general, has written a book about his time in the military, focusing,...

Writing in Al Jazeera, Alberto Mucci recently discussed Italy's 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate. Mucci details how, in many ways, the ‘Ndrangheta is wealthier...

On February 19, rumors began to swirl that the Afghan Taliban and Afghan government would resume peace talks, although this was later denied by both the...

To its detractors, Islamic law or Shari‘ah is the most lucid example of the dangers posed by Islam and Muslims. In the popular media, , stoning, floggings...

A former head of the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service, Lt. Gen Asad Durrani recently opined in Al Jazeera that Pakistan likely knew where Osama Bin...

Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city, main port, and economic and financial capital. Home to some 24 million people, the city is large, diverse, and extremely...

To the outside world, cricket is an obscure game, riddled with incomprehensible rules, men in white uniforms, and matches which stretch for days on end....

Petroleum shortages swept across Pakistan last week, resulting in massive queues at gas stations. The energy crisis was so severe and unexpected that Prime...

Arguably, one of Pakistan’s most enduring institutions is the feudal system and the practice of bonded labor. Forced labor involves enslaving people as...

After extended deliberations, Pakistan’s parliament voted to amend the country’s constitution and establish military courts to try terrorism cases....

For years, reports have circulated that the United States maintains a classified “kill list” of high value targets linked to the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and...

Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, recently reviewed a leaked classified report commissioned by...

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) devastating December 16 attack on a school in Peshawar has shocked the country. The cold blooded execution of over a...

The U.S. Senate recently released a 600 page Executive Summary of its investigation of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) use of torture. A particularly...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently published the “Report on Preliminary Examination Activities 2014.” Among the many international...

The Afghanistan Analyst Network’s Kate Clark has documented in great detail the current status of Bagram, the "other" Guantanamo Bay based in Afghanistan....

The CIA’s “secret” air war over Pakistan, which has led to an unknown number of innocent civilian deaths, is the best known, but not exclusive method by...

The RAND Corporation, a think tank based in the United States, recently issued a report on the implications of Pakistan’s increasing urbanization....

The First World War began 100 years ago, on July 28, 1914. This coming November 11 will mark the ninety-sixth anniversary of the armistice agreement ending...

On October 23, Pakistan’s Supreme Court reportedly decided to define the legal meaning of the vague Islamic terms “Sadiq” (truthful) and “Ameen”...

Visiting India on October 22nd, the acting Interior Minister of Afghanistan, Umer Daudzai, effusively praised New Delhi, calling it “an all weather...

When the Nobel Committee awarded Malala Yusufzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, it was hoped the symbolism of the...

On October 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize alongside Kailash Satyarthi. She is the youngest winner of the prize and...

Much is being made of the appointment of the new head of Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency, General Rizwan Akhtar. The ISI routinely meddles...

Looking back on the Global War on Terror, invading Afghanistan and sweeping the fundamentalist Taliban regime from power was always the easy part. The...

The Pakistan Army is back with a vengeance. After coming under criticism in recent years for multiple failures - such as the allegedly undetected presence of...

In many disturbing ways, Pakistan’s largest political parties have patterned themselves after the reigning Kim dynasty in North Korea. There, veneration of...

After April’s Presidential election in Afghanistan, widespread reports of rigging surfaced, with many observers alleging the Karzai government and its...

The rise of the Islamic State (IS) has prompted rival groups, both in the Middle East and globally, to reconsider their roles in the context of global...

Many suspect the Pakistani army is playing an important role in the current crisis buffeting the country. On August 27, the Wall Street...

The murky case of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui has resurfaced again, after militants associated with the Islamic State (IS) demanded her release in...

On August 14th, Pakistan marked its 68th independence day. Celebrations were overshadowed, however, by the “Azadi” (freedom) and “Inquilab”...

Aside from heading a notoriously violent terror group, the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Maulana Fazlullah, is also notable for being the son in law of...

Rich, vibrant, and thriving, despite all the odds – these are the words we would use to describe the contemporary popular cultures of Afghanistan and...

While not normally identified with the global art scene, Pakistani artists have become increasingly popular in international circles. For example, Bonhams, one...

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released its latest quarterly report to Congress, outlining its findings from audits of...

For years, the CIA orchestrated drone war in Pakistan has received a lot of attention and condemnation, making it one of the most poorly guarded covert...

Pakistan’s military offensive in North Waziristan, Zarb-e-Azb, has caused a massive exodus of civilians, resulting in nearly one million internally displaced...

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has released its analysis of civilian casualties in Afghanistan during 2013. While the United...

Pew Research‘s Global Attitude’s Project recently released a report about views on Islamic extremism in the Middle East. The data shows a strong and...

The secession of East Pakistan, which led to the birth of Bangladesh, was a conflict mired in terrible bloodshed. Bangladesh’s independence was a result of...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently released a review of the international refugee situation in 2013. Titled “War’s Human...

The Tehirk-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan in conjunction with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) launched a bloody assault on Karachi’s international airport...

Maintaining its traditionally pro-business stance, the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently passed its 2014-2015 budget, which has been...

Ahmer Naqvi has recently profiled the burgeoning underground music scene in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and economic capital. Although instability in...

A recent project by Forensic Architecture and Situ Research has revealed that domestic buildings have been the most frequent target in the ten-year U.S. drone...

A recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) examines evolving Pakistani thinking on the Afghan conflict. The report, titled...

Current pressures on the Pakistani press make it worthwhile to explore the authoritarian mindset underlying these curbs on media freedom. Although the army...

Pakistani truck drivers occupy a unique place on the roads and highways of the country. This is because their vehicles are often decorated with highly ornate...

Prominent Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir was recently attacked in the port city of Karachi. Although Mir survived, the attack is the latest in a long series of...

Carlotta Gall has a simple message in her new book, “The Wrong Enemy”: namely, that Pakistan is ultimately to blame for all the ills in Afghanistan, that...

Pakistan is often viewed as a chaotic and dangerous country, obscuring the vibrant literary renaissance underway, despite these unstable times. In...

With America drawing down its forces in Afghanistan in the coming months, enormous logistical work needs to be carried out in terms of redeploying military...

Afghanistan’s Roshan is set to expand in to Africa (Photo: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion) After conquering the Afghan market,...

Members of the Council of Islamic Ideology (Source: Dawn News) Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) recently issued a flurry of regressive...

Pakistan’s religious parties are a worrisome mixture of fundamentalists, nihilists, and obscurantists, who cannot be reasoned with. Traditionally at least,...

In recent years Pakistan’s judiciary has aggressively asserted its independence, thanks, in part, to the movement that led to the restoration of the former...

Bannu, Pakistan, one of the many cities that have been plagued by terrorism in recent years (Source: Omer Wazir) The Interior Minister Chaudry Nisar Ali...

Ideologies, especially fanatical ideologies have been plaguing Pakistan since its inception, contributing to its present dystopian gloom. While the dark nature...

As the Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) continues to maim, kill, and murder one and all for the sake of realizing its perverse dystopia, many in Pakistan are...

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot...

“And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every...