BEYOND DARA

(Published by Daily Excelsior on 22 November 2025) / https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/pakistans-constitutional-plunge-into-military-dominance/ Pakistan has crossed a line that even many dictatorships hesitate to cross. Its recent constitutional amendment, which elevates the serving Army Chief to a Field-Marshal-like lifelong power center, extends his tenure until 2030, and grants him sweeping legal immunity, is nothing short of a full constitutional surrender to military rule. It is not an internal political adjustment, as Islamabad would like the world to believe. It is a brazen, deliberate transformation of Pakistan into a uniform-run state where democracy survives only on paper and the constitution bends to the will of one institution. As Reuters reported, the amendment was passed with shocking ease, despite senior judges resigning in protest and warning that the constitution has been mutilated beyond recognition. Their message was stark that Pakistan’s legal order now protects the po...

https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/imran-khan-and-a-failed-state/#google_vignette Imran Khan’s journey from cricket legend to jailed former prime minister reflects the chronic failures of the Pakistani state. It is the story of a state that has never learned to separate power from the military, truth from propaganda, and democracy from managed elections. It is the story of Pakistan. Today, Imran Khan, once Pakistan’s most celebrated cricketer, a global celebrity, and later the self-declared crusader against corruption, has been in detention for over two years. His legal cases span everything from corruption to espionage to rioting. He has not been allowed to meet his lawyers for more than a month. His party is fractured, his commanders are jailed or hiding, and his political future is uncertain. But to understand how Imran Khan landed in this crisis, one must first understand the nature of the state that both manufactured and destroyed him. Imran Khan’s political ascension began long b...

https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/india-and-the-global-political-dynamics-of-south-asia/ 3 December 2025 By B. S. DARA From Pakistan’s internal shifts to Afghanistan’s isolation and China’s expanding footprint, New Delhi faces a complex regional landscape that demands sustained diplomatic engagement. India today stands at the centre of a region undergoing profound political, security, and economic transitions. The neighbourhood that surrounds South Asia, extending from the Himalayan belt to the Indian Ocean, and from West Asia to the Indo-Pacific, is marked by multiple crises that intersect with India’s national interests. These shifts demand careful diplomatic engagement, sustained strategic attention, and a rounded foreign-policy outlook. Now more than ever, India’s choices carry wider implications. As the world’s largest democracy and one of the fastest-growing economies, India is expected to play a stabilising role even when several of its immediate neighbours face internal turbulenc...

  World Today: Why It Matters ! There was a time when violence shocked us. A single act of brutality would be discussed for weeks, sparking outrage, debate, and reflection. Today, violence has become background noise. It seeps into our daily lives through screens, headlines, and conversations until it feels normal. That is the most terrifying development of all, the rise in violence and the fading of empathy. You do not need to search for examples. The world today is marked by wars that refuse to end, by school shootings that barely make it past a news cycle, by protests turning into riots, and by anger spilling from political halls into our neighborhoods. Violence is everywhere. A bombing in one country trends for hours before being pushed aside by another tragedy elsewhere. A mass shooting grabs attention for a day, then becomes just another statistic. The numbers pile up, the stories blur, and people learn to scroll past without stopping. Has the human beings become cold or the...

The specter of an all-out war between India and Pakistan looms larger than ever. What began as a retaliatory strike has escalated into a full-blown military confrontation, drawing the world to the precipice of a catastrophe that could destabilize the very fabric of global security. The tinderbox was lit on April 23, 2025, when a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, resulted in the deaths of 27 individuals, including 25 Hindu tourists. India swiftly attributed the attack to Pakistan-backed militants, leading to the launch of "Operation Sindoor" on May 7.  This operation saw Indian Rafale jets deploying SCALP missiles and Hammer bombs, targeting nine locations in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and Punjab. The strikes aimed at alleged terrorist camps, including those of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, were conducted without entering Pakistani airspace, according to Indian officials . Pakistan's response was immediate and forceful. Dubbed "Operation...

Reflections from a Life Abroad...... I grew up in a village called Chack Ahmad Yar, near the Indo- Pak border in Jammu region, in the early eighties.  I remember those peaceful Sunday mornings that signaled the beginning of my days.  Back then, I would join a ragtag gang of boys in front of the village’s small flour mill.  The flour mill of Sardar Labh Singh was our hub, a rusted outpost near the central well and the Gurdwara Sahib.  It was a place where the elders of the village would gather to share stories and discuss their daily lives.  Among those elders, there was one man, Sardar Balwant Singh, who was known to all as the village’s self-proclaimed “BBC London.”  With his booming voice and dramatic flair, he would share his prophecies of war, future battles, and world events, captivating his audience with every word.  The men would sit around him, listening intently, while some nodded along with the conviction of a true believer, while others...