menu_open Columnists
Durdana Najam

Durdana Najam

The Express Tribune

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

India's gamble in a region at war

Narendra Modi's visit to Israel last month was not a routine diplomatic stop. It was a deliberate embrace of Benjamin Netanyahu, staged with...

yesterday 20

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Afghanistan's ethnic fault-lines: fracture beneath the flag

For decades, Afghanistan has been explained through wars — the Soviet invasion, the civil war, the US intervention, the Taliban's return. Yet...

25.02.2026 20

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Manipur's long road to peace

The northeastern Indian state of Manipur has once again found itself at the center of national debate. What began in May 2023 as ethnic tensions...

18.02.2026 10

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Afghanistan and UN report: beyond denial and blame

The latest UNSC monitoring team report has reignited an old but unresolved debate: is Afghanistan once again becoming a safe space for militant...

13.02.2026 200

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Operation Sindoor report collapses under scrutiny!

Serious military analysis requires verifiable evidence, internal coherence and analytical restraint, especially when examining conflict between two...

08.02.2026 20

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Five failures in five years: ISRO's launch crisis a national liability

India's space programme has entered an uncomfortable phase where failure is no longer an exception but a recurring feature. The crash of PSLV-C62 in...

29.01.2026 30

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

A crisis of governance, not foreign conspiracy

The blast at Kabul's 'Chinese Noodle' restaurant on 19 January 2026 did more than just claim lives; it exposed the fragile reality of Afghanistan's...

23.01.2026 80

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

CM's denial dilemma

The recent statement by the chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, asserting that no terrorism is emanating from Afghanistan and that dialogue alone...

16.01.2026 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

How India's actions on Chenab threaten Pakistan's survival

India's recent manipulation of Chenab River flows has once again brought the fragile water relationship between Pakistan and India into sharp focus....

09.01.2026 70

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Afghanistan under Taliban: power without a state

More than four years after the Taliban returned to Kabul, Afghanistan presents an unusual political experiment: a regime that has successfully...

02.01.2026 90

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Fault lines in Pahalgam investigation

The submission of a 1,597-page charge sheet by India's National Investigation Agency in the Pahalgam incident, after an unexplained delay of eight...

28.12.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

NCPS 2025: the road ahead for Pakistan

For many Pakistanis, the word "corruption" evokes frustration, long queues and a quiet sense that there is little they can do to navigate a system...

11.12.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

VPNs: Pakistan's invisible digital challenge

As societies become more connected, states are recognising that the internet is no longer just a platform for communication or commerce; it is also a...

07.12.2025 30

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Our GSP+ moment: progress, challenges and perception

The upcoming review of Pakistan's Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP ) status by the European Union scheduled for late November 2025 presents...

28.11.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Muslim women in crosshairs of India's hate machine

The chaos that followed the 10 November 2025 blast at Delhi's Red Fort was still unfolding when Indian news channels hurried to stitch together a...

21.11.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Ban on TLP

The government's decision to once again ban Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) marks not just an administrative move but a decisive moral stance against...

14.11.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

PTM: from advocacy to divisive politics

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) emerged in Pakistan as what initially appeared to be a genuine grassroots movement advocating for the rights and...

07.11.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

BJP's Bihar playbook: religion, repression and polarisation

The 2025 Bihar elections have emerged as more than a state-level contest; they are a reflection of the evolving political doctrine of Bharatiya Janata...

30.10.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

After Doha: Will Afghanistan honour its commitments?

The recent flare-up along the Pak-Afghan border has once again brought into question the Taliban regime's willingness and capacity to curb...

24.10.2025 100

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Taliban's illusion of power and cost of Afghan duplicity

The border skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which erupted while Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was on a week-long visit to...

17.10.2025 100

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Indo-Afghan nexus and regional realignment

The temporary lifting of the travel ban on Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi by the UN Security Council Committee marks a significant...

09.10.2025 100

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Pakistan at UNGA: climate change must take centre stage

The 80th United Nations General Assembly convenes this month under the theme "Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human...

19.09.2025 60

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Terrorism resurgence and the need for unity

The anniversary of 9/11 reminds us that terrorism is not a relic of the past; it is a shape-shifting threat that continues to haunt nations,...

14.09.2025 90

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Pakistan doesn't need provinces; it needs its Constitution

The sudden enthusiasm for carving Pakistan into no less than 37 provinces is being sold as a solution to political instability and weak governance....

05.09.2025 150

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Our industrial stagnation in a region of growth

Pakistan-China relations are often discussed with pride and optimism, hailed as a model of strategic partnership, especially under the banner of CPEC....

29.08.2025 70

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Social media and fracturing of Pakistan's political discourse

Political polarisation in Pakistan has intensified manifold since the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan in 2022 through a no-confidence vote....

15.08.2025 60

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Kashmir, Khan and echoes of betrayed promises

August 5 has come to symbolise two distinct narratives in Pakistan. For supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — which now represents an...

08.08.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Operation Mahadev and India's shifting role in South Asia

India recently launched Operation Mahadev in Lidwas, near Srinagar, targeting militants allegedly involved in the April 22 Pahalgam attack. While the...

01.08.2025 60

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Sanctuaries of violence!

It is never easy to speak about religion in Pakistan. Yet silence, especially when it protects abuse, is not piety. The recent tragic death of a young...

25.07.2025 70

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Altering Mughal history in Indian textbooks

In the 2025-26 academic year, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in India introduced a revamped Class 8 Social Science...

20.07.2025 50

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

A blowback of narrative engineering

The recent move by National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency to seek a court order against 27 YouTube channels marks yet another chapter in the...

11.07.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

PTI: divided leadership, jailed leader and inflammatory rhetoric

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), once regarded as the country's most potent political force, now finds its leadership split into four distinct groups:...

04.07.2025 10

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

A strategic triad rewiring Eurasia

On May 28, 2025, the leaders of Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Pakistan gathered in Lachin to formalise a trilateral partnership that could reshape how...

26.06.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

A shared horizon: why Pak-Afghan ties matter

Few bilateral relationships in South Asia are as deeply rooted and strategically consequential as those between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Shaped by...

19.06.2025 100

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

India, ISKP and BLA: Pakistan's multi-front security challenge

In recent years, Pakistan has grappled with an evolving security landscape marked by a resurgence of terrorism and foreign interference. From the...

13.06.2025 60

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

India's role in South Asia: time to honour Delhi Agreement

South Asia, with its intertwined histories and complex relationships, remains one of the most volatile regions in the world. The 1974 Delhi Agreement,...

06.06.2025 50

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

India's water war: time for justice, not aggression

India's recent hybrid war against Pakistan began not with tanks or missiles, but with a chilling threat - shut off the water. In the wake of the...

30.05.2025 80

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

India's foreign policy — optics, opportunism and scapegoating

As India stumbled to control the global narrative, the world witnessed a spectacle not of strategy, but of survival. In the aftermath of the Pahalgam...

23.05.2025 60

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

India's covert war on Pakistan's existence

In yet another grim episode of ethnic bloodshed, four Punjabi men were recently gunned down in the Naukshi area of Balochistan. From bus shootings to...

18.05.2025 40

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

PTI's lonely road: from May 9 violence to political isolation

May 9, 2022 will be remembered as one of the most consequential days in Pakistan's recent political history. In the wake of former Prime Minister...

09.05.2025 20

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Pahalgam exposes India's Kashmir contradiction

The recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of Hindu tourists, all male, was tragic and reprehensible by every standard of human...

02.05.2025 70

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

HIV in Pakistan: a fight for dignity, not just treatment

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) – of which AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is the most advanced stage – is a disease that many avoid...

25.04.2025 30

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam

Rethinking the diaspora's role

Overseas Pakistanis have long occupied a complicated place in the country's political and economic imagination. They are celebrated as the lifeblood...

17.04.2025 50

The Express Tribune

Durdana Najam