Dateline Islamabad by Salma Malik
  • Gendering Strategic Discourses: Women as Opinion-Makers
    Salma Malik   ·    28 Jun, 2016   ·    5070
    Speaking recently at a UN plenary on the subject of ‘women in disarmament’, it was indeed a matter of great pride and honour as the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva was presided by a woman ambassador who happened to be Paki ...
  • Forecast 2016: Pakistan
    Salma Malik   ·    04 Feb, 2016   ·    4982
    The tragic overhang of the army school massacre was the inheritance 2015 carried from the previous year. However, the silver lining to this dark macabre cloud was not only the collective resolve of the Pakistani nation to not bow to the t ...
  • Pakistan's Hurt Locker: What Next?
    Salma Malik   ·    18 Feb, 2015   ·    4837
    A year ago, the morning of 7 January 2014 started as an average routine day for the children of Ibrahimzai village in Hangu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, few minutes later, 14-year-old Aitzaz Hasan, prevented a suicide bombing attack on t ...
  • IPCS Forecast: Pakistan in 2015
    Salma Malik   ·    17 Jan, 2015   ·    4806
    This edition of the IPCS Column, 'Dateline Islamabad', is the precis of a larger document titled 'Pakistan in 2015', published under the IPCS Forecast 2015 series.   Click here to read the full ...
  • India-Pakistan Relations in 2015: Through a Looking Glass
    Salma Malik   ·    23 Dec, 2014   ·    4786
    The year is about to end, and keeping true to tradition, it is time for reflection and recollection. However bad the situation may become, the end of year holds an optimism that the coming year would prove better than the previous. 2014 b ...
  • Burying the Past: A New Beginning for Pakistan and Afghanistan
    Salma Malik   ·    18 Nov, 2014   ·    4743
    The newly-elected President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, while addressing a joint press conference at the end of his two-day visit to Pakistan, said “We must overcome the past…we will not permit the past to destroy the futur ...
  • India-Pakistan: Working Boundaries and Lines of Uncontrolled Fire
    Salma Malik   ·    13 Oct, 2014   ·    4696
    After a much-deliberated stalemate, Afghanistan finally had a new democratic government with a power-sharing arrangement. The signing of the controversial Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) provides a false sense of security to many who f ...
  • Of Inquilab and the Inquilabis
    Salma Malik   ·    08 Sep, 2014   ·    4648
    Now-a-days, revolutions, like popular reality shows, have begun to appear in all fonts and colors. From the once classic connotation of Mao’s Long March, bloody revolutions such as the Bolshevik or Iranian that left deep imprints on ...
  • Pakistan: Of Messiahs and Marches
    Salma Malik   ·    11 Aug, 2014   ·    4602
    It is both tragic and funny how the poor Pakistanis take anyone and everyone for the political messiah. All this proverbial messiah needs to do is say the right things with passion and fervour. Interestingly, the way Pakistani decision-ma ...
  • Zarb-e-Azb: The Decisive Strike
    Salma Malik   ·    14 Jul, 2014   ·    4559
    Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched against militants in North Waziristan by the Pakistani military on 15 June is now entering the second phase of clearing and reclaiming lost spaces. A few days ago, Miranshah, an important city, was 80% re ...