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Iran Has Learned America’s Favourite War Argument

  Iran and the United States use different doctrines to defend military escalation, while the consequences travel through Gulf oil routes to economies such as Pakistan. A Reader Asked the Question I Could Not Ignore Early one Karachi morning, I was reading the comments under my post when one sentence stopped me. The reader was not arguing about missile range or the price of Brent crude. He was accusing me of something more uncomfortable. “آپ کی لاجک ویسی ہی ہے جیسے کسی زمانے میں عراق اور افغانستان پر امریکی حملے کو جسٹیفائی کرنے والے دیتے تھے۔ حوثیوں اور ایرانیوں کیلئے آپ بھی وہی لاجک استعمال کر رہے ہیں۔” “Your logic is similar to the arguments once used to justify the American attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. You are now using the same logic for the Houthis and the Iranians.” My first instinct was to reject the comparison. Iran in 2026 does not possess the military reach America enjoyed in 2003, and the Houthis certainly do not command anything resembling the Pentagon. Then I...
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America Exports Fuel While Americans Pay Record Prices. Should Washington Stop It?

  U.S. refiners are shipping fuel abroad during an energy shock. Keeping more at home sounds simple until refinery geography reveals where the real constraint lies. American refiners continue sending fuel into global markets even as domestic gasoline prices rise, exposing the tension between export power and consumer relief. A reader looked past the price board A reader left a comment under my article about America's record fuel prices that kept bothering me. Why, he asked, should the United States continue exporting gasoline and diesel while Americans struggle at home? Washington could keep more fuel inside the country until oil moves normally through the Persian Gulf again. Labor Day gave his argument more force. AAA recorded a national average of $4.1505 a gallon on September 7 , putting regular gasoline above four dollars on Labor Day for the first time and breaking the previous holiday record from 2012. The problem did not ease when the long weekend ended. By September 8, Bren...
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Why Genuine Umrah Pilgrims Are Now Paying the Price for Pakistan’s Human-Smuggling Networks

  Pakistani Umrah pilgrims face immigration screening as FIA tightens checks against human-smuggling networks using religious travel routes. At a Pakistani airport, an Umrah passenger hardly looks unusual. An older man may be checking his passport while his wife keeps the hotel papers inside a plastic folder, and somewhere beyond immigration the departure board shows Jeddah or Madinah. Yet an Umrah visa now triggers questions that had little to do with pilgrimage a few years ago because human smugglers have learned to hide the first stage of an illegal journey inside a lawful religious trip. I find the change troubling for reasons that go beyond immigration statistics. Umrah occupies a familiar place in Pakistani family life, especially among people who have never travelled abroad before and may depend on their children to arrange tickets or accommodation. Once criminal networks exploit that route, genuine pilgrims inherit suspicion they did nothing to create. The problem became...
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Pakistan Has Created a Second Visa System at Its Airports

  At Karachi airport, I have learned not to treat the immigration counter as a routine stamp before departure. I hand over my passport, watch the officer move through its pages, answer his questions, then wait while a computer screen somewhere behind the glass decides nothing and everything at once. Most journeys continue without drama, but Pakistan's growing offloading system has added a second uncertainty: the country that issued the visa may accept my visit, yet my own government can still stop me from leaving. I understand why that possibility unsettles travellers. A visa answers whether a foreign state will allow a person to seek entry under stated conditions; it does not cancel Pakistan's lawful power to regulate departure. My objection begins elsewhere, when suspicion becomes an unpublished test and a passenger cannot tell which rule he has failed. Muhammad Abbas discovered the distinction at Sialkot International Airport on January 31, 2026. He held a valid Nigerian ...
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FIA Phone Checks at Pakistani Airports: What Is Legal?

 FIA now uses risk-based passenger profiling, but the legal limits of compulsory phone access remain disputed. FIA says selected high-risk travellers may face phone examination at Pakistani airports, raising fresh questions about profiling, privacy and immigration powers. At Jinnah International Airport, the immigration counter can change character in seconds. A traveller presents a valid visa, answers questions about the trip, then hears a request few people expect: unlock your phone. FIA phone checks at Pakistani airports now form part of a wider debate about passenger profiling and the limits of immigration power. I find the phone question more important than the usual argument about offloading because a passport tells an officer about a journey, while a smartphone can reveal a private life. Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency says phone examinations do occur. Yet FIA describes them as exceptional rather than routine. In July 2026, Additional Director-General Immigration ...
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The Fake Video Is Wrong. Pakistan Still Has an India-Israel-Afghanistan Problem

  A viral video claims that Israel, India and Afghanistan are coordinating against Pakistan. The evidence does not support a formal anti-Pakistan alliance, but real strategic relationships beneath the claim deserve closer scrutiny. A video arrived on my phone in Karachi with the sort of warning Pakistanis have heard for decades. A man spoke urgently about Israel and India joining Afghanistan against Pakistan, while clips of Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to provide proof. I watched it again because some parts of the story sounded familiar, and familiar claims can become dangerous when real geopolitical changes sit underneath them. Then the evidence started breaking. A Netanyahu clip carrying the same allegation had already circulated online in February 2026. It made the Israeli prime minister appear to announce support and a special aid package for Afghanistan at Modi's request, but iVerify Pakistan traced the footage to Netanyahu's original speech and conclud...
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Parents Take the Money. Girls Do the Work: Pakistan’s Hidden Child Domestic Labour Market

  Pakistan can count workers at brick kilns, but child domestic labour often remains hidden inside private homes, especially when wages are paid in advance to parents or guardians. Pakistan can inspect a brick kiln. It struggles to see the child worker behind a private gate, especially when her wages have already been taken by someone else. I did not have to visit a brick kiln outside Lahore to notice Pakistan’s hidden labour problem. I saw part of it much closer to home, inside a relative’s household, where a young girl worked as domestic help. Her father or guardian received her wages, and the arrangement sounded ordinary enough that nobody around it seemed especially troubled. I kept thinking about the money. Suppose a father takes six months or a full year of wages in advance, then the girl wants to leave after two months. Who returns the unpaid balance when the family has already spent it on rent, food or some emergency that could not wait? The employer may say the family has ...
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