Author: Fozhan Baig

It was bitter cold, but I don’t remember freezing or being cold. Hemingway wrote that the air was so cold when you took a breath it was like drinking water. We travelled by train, then we walked through the cold streets, no bus was running, we had to hustle to catch the last ride up the mountain, then it was up to the mountain, bundled up in two thick woolen blankets with the snow showering us. It was warm looking out of the peep hole I created, flying up the mountains sitting on the last ride of the day. The…

In October 2024, China’s first comprehensive regulation to tighten state control over the critical sector of rare earth resources took effect. Coming amid the global transition towards clean energy, the regulation demonstrates China’s increased leverage of its rare earth monopoly to outpace its geopolitical rivals like the United States, which remains far behind China in this sector. Intensified competition for rare earth elements risks overshadowing collaborative efforts to develop clean technology.Mountain Pass, owned by MP Materials, is the only large-scale rare earth mining and processing facility in North America. Image from Wikimedia Commons.In the race to develop clean technology, major…

A follow-up report issued recently by the UN General Assembly’s Human Rights Council assails Tajikistan’s government for failing to implement recommendations contained in an earlier survey concerning atrocities committed during the country’s civil war in the mid-1990s. The follow-up report relates to a mission conducted in 2019 by UN researchers intent on promoting the closure of old societal wounds left by the civil war. Among that mission’s recommendations was the establishment of a “a truth-seeking State policy” and the development of “specific mechanisms, supported by dedicated resources, for dealing with disappearances caused by and related to the civil war.” The Tajik civil war…

A Muslim mob stormed a police station and destroyed parked police vehicles in northwestern Pakistan, Madyan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. As reported by AP, the mob seized a man detained there and lynched him on accusations of desecrating the Quran on Thursday, according to local police official Rahim Ullah. Mohammad Ismail, a tourist staying at a hotel in Madyan town, became the target of locals who accused him of blasphemy. Police officers reportedly took Ismail to the station to safeguard him, but a growing mob pursued them. The mob proceeded to storm the station, seize Ismail, brutally assault him to death, and…

It is as old and venerable as Rome, the eternal city, and Athens, the city of wisdom, yet Samarkand, the pearl of the Muslim world, draws only a fraction of the attention that those two capitals do. Indeed, while most people know that Rome is in Italy and Athens is in Greece, few would have even heard of Samarkand, let alone know that it is in Uzbekistan. That very anonymity, largely a result of being all but ignored by the world’s travelers, may be what is helping fuel a surge of Chinese tourists to the countries of Central Asia, where…

BBC Urdu, in an extensive report published on Tuesday, claimed that Pakistan entered into a $364 million arms sales agreement with two private US companies last year. These weapons were allegedly sent to Ukraine for its war with Russia. The Russia-Ukraine crisis began last year when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the latter’s invasion on February 24. The Foreign Office has denied any sale of arms and ammunition to Ukraine, saying that Pakistan maintained a policy of “strict neutrality” in the dispute between the two countries and did not provide them with any arms or ammunition in that context. It must be noted that these alleged…

LAHORE: Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said he was ousted from the government in 1999 by (late) Gen Pervez Musharraf for opposing the Kargilmisadventure, as he underlined the importance of having good relations with India and other neighbours. The three-time prime minister questioned why he was ousted from the office of the prime minister prematurely. “I should be told why I was ousted in 1993 and 1999. When I opposed the Kargil plan saying it should not happen… I was ousted (by Gen Pervez Musharraf). And later what I said proved right,” Sharif said here while talking to the aspirants of…

Mumbai: India’s unemployment rate is at a record low and the country’s labour market is undergoing a structural transformation, a report said on Tuesday. In the new report, the economists at the country’s largest lender SBI also pitched for a “reinterpretation of old fashioned rhetoric” while looking at a subject like employment. “India’s unemployment rate is at a record low, India’s labour market is undergoing a deep structural transformation with self-entrepreneurship across all echelons and higher educational attainment emerging as key enablers,” the report said. It rued that the jump in self-employed populace within the employment estimates (57.3 per cent in…

A Growing number of countries are rolling out their national security policies. Pakistan joined the list last year, a step ahead of India. While this document breaks the mould of Pakistan’s usual security roadmaps in many ways, one of the most interesting things about it is what it says about the Indian Ocean— specifically its name. But first, let’s understand the crucial role of national security doctrines, where India currently stands on this front, and some of the most remarkable features of Pakistan’s document. Why national security policies matter All five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)—…

From November 2 to 3, the Asia Economic Community Forum (AECF) took place in Incheon, South Korea. At this forum, which is aimed at enhancing cooperation among Asian countries, a special session hosted by the Taejae Future Consensus Institute drew considerable attention. The session, titled “Nuclear Arms Race and Emerging Security Challenges: Is U.S.-China Cooperation on Nuclear Disarmament Feasible?” featured representatives from the United States, China, and South Korea engaging in discussions. While South Korea has been grappling with determining its diplomatic stance amid the China-U.S. competition and strategizing how to induce North Korea’s denuclearization, the escalating rivalry between the United States…