By Muhammad Darjat As fertile lands disappear under floods and erosion, community-led restoration offers a practical blueprint for climate resilience in Pakistan's mountain regions. Across the high-altitude valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan, a tangible crisis is radically reshaping the physical and built environment. Driven by escalating global temperatures, accelerated snow and glacier melt have turned essential seasonal lifelines into instruments of destruction. Fertile agricultural lands cultivated for generations are being systematically buried under rocky debris, eroded by shifting riverbeds, or drowned by sudden flash floods. The scars of this changing climate are increasingly visible across the mountainous region. In the Saling and Balghar area of Ghanche district and Hoto village in Skardu and the main Shigar Valley in Baltistan,the shifting, swelling waters of the Shyok , Balardu Rivers and their cumulative flow have eaten away vital farmland including agroforestry plots and apricot orchards. Meanwhile, in the villages of Dain and Pakora locality in Ishkomen Valley in Ghezir district, the intense summer heatwaves provoke sudden mudflows and debris torrents, transforming lush fruit orchards into rocky deserts. The rehabilitation work of 2025 floods in Thank in Diamer, Talidas Raoshan Gupis,and village Dain in Ishkoman are yet to be completed and the new destruction in Molaabad in Gupis and settlements in Ghanche district has started in the first week of July 2026. Further north in the village of Passu,in Hunza district aggressive lateral bank erosion and damage to farmland for decades and the turbulent flow by glacial runoff threatens the very foundations of agrarian livelihoods. Elders say that this old village used to be the settlement of 300 households and the land erosion incrementally forced people to migrate to other villages and locations within and outside Pakistan. A perennial Glacier Outburst event in the village of Hassanabad in Hunza and Hopper in...

More than 10,000 Afghans a day have been crossing into Afghanistan since Islamabad’s July 10 deadline. The UN warns that fear of arrest is driving people out, blurring the line between voluntary return and forced deportation. Days before Pakistan’s latest deadline for Afghans expired, a holding centre at a government college in Rawalpindi was fortified with barbed wire, CCTV cameras and searchlights. Fifty-five police officers were assigned to guard it in three shifts, alongside Elite Force commandos. Afghans brought to the centre were required to surrender their mobile phones at a verification desk until their deportation. The arrangements offered an early picture of what would follow July 10, the date after which Pakistan’s Interior Ministry ordered the immediate arrest of any Afghan national found in the country without a valid visa. The crackdown is now under way. On July 12, police detained 47 Afghans in Charsadda district and three more in neighbouring Mohmand. The detainees were transferred to holding facilities for verification before deportation through the Torkham border. Authorities in Punjab say 36 holding centres are operating across the province. Dawn reported the first arrests under the renewed operation. At the border, the scale of the movement is even more visible. Officials at the Hamza Baba transit point in Landi Kotal said more than 10,000 Afghans had been returning each day, nearly three times the rate recorded in May and June. In Kohat, state media reported that more than 12,200 families had left refugee camps through a phased return programme. A return driven by fear Pakistan describes the campaign as the enforcement of its immigration laws. The Interior Ministry’s directive applies to Afghans without valid visas, including those whose visas have expired, and requires authorities to submit daily reports on arrests and subsequent action. Islamabad argues that a sovereign state cannot indefinitely permit foreign nationals to remain without...

No country in recent history has achieved the scale of economic, technological and social transformation witnessed in China. Over the past four decades, China has emerged from a developing economy into a global leader in technology, innovation, education, infrastructure and human development. Today, China is not only leading the region economically but is also shaping global trends in trade, manufacturing, technology and investment. What makes China’s development journey remarkable is not merely the scale of its achievements but the consistency of its vision. The country has demonstrated how long-term planning, policy continuity and investment in people can produce extraordinary results. Across the nation, there is a clear focus on development, modernization and improving the quality of life of ordinary citizens. China’s rise as a technological powerhouse is particularly impressive. From artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing to electric vehicles, high-speed rail and digital payment systems, China has positioned itself at the forefront of innovation. Chinese companies are increasingly setting global standards in advanced technology and industrial production. The country’s commitment to research and development has enabled it to compete with the world’s leading economies in sectors that will define the future. An important factor behind this remarkable transformation has been the continuity of leadership and long-term vision. Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has continued to pursue modernization, technological innovation, poverty alleviation and high-quality development with determination and consistency. His emphasis on long-term planning, human capital development, innovation and shared prosperity has helped China strengthen its position as a leading economic and technological power. During recent visits to Wuhan, Xiangyang and Beijing, the practical results of these policies were visible everywhere. Modern industrial facilities, smart...

Engineer Arshad H Abbasi and Imtiaz Gul Born from one of the world's most successful examples of international water diplomacy, the Indus Waters Treaty enabled the construction of the infrastructure that powered Pakistan's economic rise. As debates over the treaty intensify, this article explores both the extraordinary achievements of the Indus Basin Project and the costly erosion of the vision that once transformed Pakistan's future. In 1951, Eugene Robert Black, President of the World Bank, looked at the newly partitioned subcontinent and saw not a territorial dispute but an engineering problem — and an opportunity. The Indus River system, the lifeblood of South Asia's most productive agricultural plain, had been severed at Partition like a vital artery. India controlled the headworks. Pakistan depended on the flows. The standoff was inching toward war. Inspired by a bold proposal from American engineer David Lilienthal — the architect of the Tennessee Valley Authority — Black mediated across nine painstaking years of diplomacy. The result was the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. It remains, to this day, the most durable water-sharing agreement in human history — surviving three wars, nuclear standoffs, and sixty-five years of enmity. What followed was not merely a legal settlement. It was the economic birth of modern Pakistan. Under the Indus Basin Development Fund Agreement, an international coalition mobilized USD 566 million in external funding: the United States contributing USD 247 million, Germany USD 126 million as an outright grant, the World Bank an USD 80 million loan, Canada USD 22.1 million, the United Kingdom USD 20.86 million, Australia USD 6.97 million, New Zealand USD 1 million — and India USD 62.06 million. The World Bank did not write a check and walk away. It supervised the design and execution of one of the most complex hydraulic programs in history: two storage dams, six barrages, eight inter-river link canals, drainage networks, roads, and...

Pakistan is steadily recalibrating its trade map by expanding connectivity with Central Asia and Iran while reducing reliance on Afghan transit routes. Although new corridors point to greater diversification and deeper regional integration, the shift also raises a strategic question about how to balance emerging opportunities with the stabilising value of continued economic engagement with Afghanistan.Pakistan has been actively reshaping its regional connectivity framework at a time when traditional transit routes through Afghanistan have become increasingly uncertain due to recurring border tensions and disruptions. Policy direction is clearly moving towards diversification, with a focus on reducing reliance on a single corridor while expanding access to multiple regional pathways.A key milestone in this shift was the arrival of the first Kyrgyz shipment in Karachi last Thursday. The cargo travelled through China via the Khunjerab Pass and Sost Dry Port, marking the operational opening of a new overland link between Central Asia and Pakistan’s southern ports. While limited in scale, the shipment is an effort to integrate Central Asian economies more directly with Pakistan’s maritime gateways.Under this emerging framework, Kyrgyzstan, along with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, is expected to gain more structured access to Karachi port. The objective is to provide landlocked states with a predictable alternative to Afghan transit routes and strengthen Pakistan’s position as a regional trade conduit.In parallel, Pakistan has formalised a significant policy shift through the Transit of Goods through Territory of Pakistan Order 2026. The order allows third country goods destined for Iran to transit through Pakistan and brings multiple routes, including Karachi, Gwadar and key western crossings such as Taftan and Nokundi under a regulated customs framework administered by the Federal Board of Revenue. This extends Pakistan’s transit footprint...

By Elsa Imdad Chandio The cross-border escalation between Pakistan and Afghanistan since late February 2026 has unfolded in a context in which Afghan women already live under some of the most restrictive conditions in the world. In this sense, the airstrikes, shelling, and cross-border clashes, which have affected at least ten provinces, do not introduce instability into an otherwise stable environment. Assessments by Afghanistan’s Operational Gender Coordination Group show that women and girls make up more than half of the nearly 90,000 people affected by the escalation. This alone illustrates the gendered nature of the crisis. A considerable number of communities now report that women are unable to reach health facilities. In others, access is dependent on a male guardian, or obstructed by the lack of female health workers. These constraints are not new, but increased insecurity has made them far more difficult to navigate. Daily routines have altered in visible ways. Women describe a shrinking of the physical spaces they can safely enter. Markets, water points, clinics, and even communal latrines in displacement sites are avoided due to fear of airstrikes, harassment or the unpredictable behaviour of armed personnel at checkpoints. In Kabul, many families now prevent women from leaving home entirely. Men have taken over tasks that women previously managed, not because roles are shifting, but because the risks have risen to such an extent that families are unwilling to expose women to them. As one woman explained: “We no longer feel safe going outside or continuing normal life.” Women without male relatives are facing the sharpest difficulties. Female-headed households, which are already among the most vulnerable in Afghanistan, encounter compounded barriers when attempting to secure aid, travel for medical care or obtain basic supplies. The requirement of a mahram, documentation checks and mobility restrictions intersect to limit even essential movement. In...