2025 SAW significant developments in Pakistan, some of which were positive while others reinforced troubling, negative trends. A surge in public optimism in the earlier part of the year seemed to fade towards year-end. An Ipsos poll released in December found nearly 70 per cent of people felt the country was headed in the wrong direction. It also showed 82pc of respondents had no confidence in the economy despite progress made by the government in achieving short-term macroeconomic stabilisation.

Government-opposition confrontations kept a deeply polarised country in an unsettled state, making political stability elusive. There was a marked slide into authoritarianism, which reinforced the trend of democratic recession. The civil-military balance shifted even more decisively to the latter’s advantage in a governing arrangement that went beyond being ‘hybrid-plus’. The internal security situation continued to be challenging with an upsurge in militant activity and terrorist attacks.

One of the most consequential events of the year was the four-day conflict in May between India and Pakistan. Pakistan’s effective management of the military confrontation in which it got the better of its adversary generated a rise in national pride and self-confidence. It produced a significant surge in the military’s popularity and image. India failed to achieve its objectives in spite of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unsubstantiated claims of destroying the “terrorist infrastructure”. Its resort to a military ‘solution’ for a terror attack backfired as it miscalculated the consequences of its actions. As a result of its clumsy........

© Dawn