By Abdul Waheed Waheed Afghanistan’s strategic diversification of trade routes through Central Asia and Iran has reduced its economic reliance on Pakistan, lessening the impact of repeated border closures. This analysis explores how these shifts are strengthening Afghanistan’s resilience, reshaping cross-border trade dynamics, and highlighting the need for both Afghanistan and Pakistan to move from coercion toward cooperative, predictable engagement. A courageous step taken a decade ago to reduce Afghanistan’s dependence on Pakistan and to explore alternative trade corridors is now bearing fruit. Those forward-looking policies, once underestimated, have today resulted in Afghanistan’s calm indifference toward Pakistan’s closure of the Durand Line gates. The bold decisions to diversify trade routes and strengthen regional connectivity, particularly through Central Asia and Iran, have gradually freed Afghanistan from the economic stranglehold once exerted by its southern neighbor. The era when a single day of Durand Line gates closure could trigger panic and inflation across Afghan markets is gone. What we now witness is a quiet but profound shift: the transformation of vulnerability into resilience, born out of strategic foresight and hard-earned lessons from history. It has already been three weeks since the gates along the Durand Line were closed, yet prices inside Afghanistan have remained relatively stable. The closures no longer exert significant economic pressure on the country. This newfound stability reflects Afghanistan’s growing economic resilience and its gradual shift away from over-dependence on Pakistan for trade and transit, while also demonstrating a measured response to Pakistan’s unilateral imposition of restrictions on Afghan trade and movement. However, the closures have taken a toll on Afghan exports, particularly perishable goods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Thousands of tons of these products, destined for Pakistani markets, have...

By Imtiaz Gul & Engineer Arshad H Abbasi The authors dissect Pakistan’s decade-long descent into energy dependency. Drawing on policy data and comparative analysis, the authors trace how the neglect of public-sector power plants, misplaced investment in imported fuels, and rent-seeking governance transformed a manageable shortfall into a structural crisis. In 2013, Pakistan’s energy crisis reached its darkest point. Cities fell silent under endless load-shedding, factories stood shuttered, and families endured darkness for as long as 18 hours a day. This collapse was not the result of absent infrastructure but of something far more serious: public-sector power plants, once the backbone of national energy, corroded by neglect, starved of maintenance, and left to decay. A nation of two hundred million stood at a crossroads, and the path chosen sealed a decade of hardship. One option was straightforward: rehabilitate the thermal plants inherited under the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO). Though battered by decades of misuse, their structures remained sound. Feasibility studies laid out a rehabilitation program costing just USD 215–400 million. In return, Pakistan could have restored 1,200 MW, reduced fuel consumption, cut emissions, and bought precious time for structural reforms. Instead, policymakers embraced imported fuels under the 2015 National Power Policy. LNG terminals rose on the coasts, coal plants in Sahiwal and Port Qasim began to burn foreign coal, and independent power producers (IPPs) signed contracts with binding take-or-pay clauses. The consequences were severe. Circular debt spiralled past Rs. 5 trillion. As a result, Pakistan’s tariffs ranked among the highest in South Asia. Ordinary households were forced to spend half their incomes on electricity. Industries shuttered, exports shrank, unemployment deepened, and every ribbon-cutting ceremony became less a promise of light than a symbol of financial strain. Across the border, India...

By Engineer Arshad H Abbasi, International Water & Energy Expert As an independent expert in water and energy issues, with long-standing professional experience on transboundary rivers, I have followed with close attention the recent inauguration of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile. At a cost of $5 billion, the GERD is Africa’s largest hydroelectric project and a symbol of Ethiopia’s ambition to electrify its economy and reduce energy poverty. For Ethiopia, it represents not only energy security but also national pride, as the project was built without foreign aid and funded largely by the sacrifices of its own citizens. But for its downstream neighbors, Sudan and especially Egypt, the dam raises profound anxieties about water security and survival. The concerns of Egypt are not difficult to understand. More than 95 percent of Egypt’s water supply comes from the Nile. Few nations in the world are as dependent on a single river as Egypt, which obtains 93 to 97 percent of its freshwater from the Nile. This level of reliance transforms the river from a resource into an existential necessity. Historical use of the Nile has sustained Egypt’s civilization for millennia, providing fertile soil, drinking water, and the irrigation on which agriculture has depended since the age of the pharaohs. Today, the Nile continues to be the backbone of Egypt’s food, water, and energy systems. In international water governance, historical use and dependence are not abstract arguments. They constitute real, legally relevant grounds for priority of use, especially when more than 100 million people live in a nation where the river is virtually the sole water source. The construction and operation of the GERD must also be viewed through the framework of international transboundary water law. The 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses enshrines two guiding principles: the principle of equitable and reasonable...

by Islomkhon Gafarov Afghanistan’s education system faces a critical crossroads under Taliban rule. With religious studies prioritized over secular and scientific learning, limited opportunities for girls, and chronic underfunding, the country risks long-term setbacks in innovation and development. Yet, regional partnerships, progressive Afghan institutions, and emerging online education initiatives offer avenues to preserve learning, empower communities, and bridge the gap between tradition and modernity. The Taliban’s assumption of power in August 2021 exerted a profound impact on the socio-cultural and political fabric of Afghanistan. The ensuing politico-spiritual transformations reverberated across the country’s economic sphere and the of its social life. The system of primary, higher, and postgraduate education found itself in a precarious position, shaped by the abrupt shift in political and ideological orientation following two decades of American presence. In effect, instability in the educational sector emerged as a direct consequence of the transition from a Western-oriented model to an Islamic conception of education. This transformation is poised, in the long term, to generate a complex set of socio-political and economic challenges for Afghan society. Current Situation and Challenges The contemporary education system in Afghanistan faces a range of profound structural and institutional deficiencies. The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has placed a clear priority on the religious dimensions of education over secular and scientific disciplines. Consequently, theological subjects occupy a central position in curricula – often as compulsory components – while the development of natural sciences and technical fields remains severely constrained. This imbalance impedes the formation of an innovative environment and hampers progress in strategically significant domains such as information technology. Over the long term, in an era defined by global...

By Engineer Arshad H Abbasi Uzbekistan’s transformation shows that disciplined leadership and vision can overcome even the harshest geographical limits. Its rise offers a striking lesson for nations blessed with resources but lacking direction. Uzbekistan is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, cut off not just from the oceans but also from the seas of its neighbors. Geography, at least in my early assumptions, condemned it to stagnation. I remember my first visit to this proud Central Asian land nearly two decades ago. As I looked out over its vast steppes, a persistent thought weighed on me: how could this country ever achieve meaningful development without a seaport? To my mind, ports were the gateways to prosperity, the arteries of trade. Without them, Uzbekistan seemed fated to struggle. But how magnificently Uzbekistan has proved me wrong. This nation has demonstrated a resilience and discipline that has stunned even seasoned observers. It has charted a path of reform and modernisation that many coastal states, blessed with access to the seas, have failed to match. In doing so, Uzbekistan has shown that geography does not dictate destiny—leadership does. This realisation carries a painful irony for me as a Pakistani. My country has every advantage Uzbekistan lacks. We have a 1,046-kilometer coastline, three major seaports—Karachi, Port Qasim, and Gwadar—and nine coastal cities. Pakistan should be a hub of prosperity, commanding global trade routes and ensuring growth for its people. Yet we are slipping deeper into poverty and economic fragility. According to the World Bank, more than 45 percent of Pakistan’s population now lives below the poverty line. Our foreign reserves stand at only 19 billion dollars in mid-2025. By contrast, Uzbekistan, with no seaports at all, has surged ahead. In 2006, its reserves stood at just 4 to 6 billion dollars. Today, they exceed 49 billion. Poverty has fallen sharply, with just 8.9 percent of the...