Pakistan

More than seven decades after Pakistan’s creation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah continues to captivate both his critics and admirers. While the former excoriate him for exploiting religion to achieve his goal, the latter hail him as the Qaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) who single-handedly secured a homeland for the Muslims of British India.

• Amit Cowshish
• May 2021
• Strategic Analysis

The three list categorisation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—white, grey, and black—has been largely ineffective when dealing with jurisdictions like Pakistan. There need to be more gradations between the grey and blacklists as it may increase policy options and leverage.

• Pradeep Singh Gautam
• October 12, 2020
• Issue Brief

The ISPR was founded in 1949 as the public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces. However, its role, responsibilities and activities have expanded notably over the last three decades. This article evaluates the role of the ISPR in cyber propaganda via print and electronic media after 1990s. It also sheds light on the ISPR’s youth-internship scheme and its plausible role in digital espionage. The main arguments in this article are derived from information available on official websites of Pakistan military, their local newspapers, and relevant social media platforms.

• Divya Malhotra
• October-December 2020
• Journal of Defence Studies

Pakistan has not allowed a genuine democratic system of governance to emerge in PoK, as it interferes with its pursuit of absolute control over the occupied territories.

• Priyanka Singh
• June 26, 2020
• Issue Brief

Pakistan’s efforts to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak may get severely constrained due to the refusal of the ulema and religious leaders to ensure that their followers abide by the rules of the lockdown and social distancing.

• Yaqoob-ul-Hassan
• April 21, 2020
• IDSA Comments

While scientists all over the world are working tirelessly to find an antidote to COVID-19, the narratives doing the rounds in Pakistan – pushed and peddled by the Urdu media, accuse them of conspiring to turn this virus into a weapon to not only kill but also to alter the human psyche.

• Nazir Ahmad Mir
• April 20, 2020
• IDSA Comments

Over the past year i.e. 2018–2019, Pakistan has been facing challenging macro-economic conditions that include a ballooning fiscal imbalance and a weak external position with gross reserves at $8 billion, equal to 1.7 months of imports. On June 19, 2019, Reza Baqir, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan wrote to the Managing Director of the IMF, seeking assistance under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), on grounds that Pakistan’s international reserves had touched critically low levels with a large balance of payments gap, in an environment of limited market access.

• V. Srinivas
• January 2020
• Strategic Analysis

Although the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement has been able to mainstream the Pashtun issue and has inspired popular empathy, its anti-establishment thrust has made it a soft target for the pro-establishment media and political actors.

• Zainab Akhter
• January 28, 2019
• IDSA Comments

With the ever increasing support and swelling number of protesters, Pashteen changed the name of the organisation from the Mehsud Tahafuz Movement to Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns.

• Zainab Akhter , Yaqoob-ul-Hassan
• May 04, 2018
• IDSA Comments

Pakistan’s desperation to keep itself off the list of defaulting countries maintained by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) underlines the increasing effectiveness of the organisation, which has become the spearhead against global efforts combating the financing of terrorism (CFT).

• Vivek Chadha
• February 26, 2018
• Issue Brief