Hassan Khan
Daily Times
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Hassan:
Of Angels and Demons
On Tuesday evening, I was surfing through my Twitter account when I stumbled upon the claims of a disturbing, heart-wrenching murder in Islamabad. When further details emerged, I momentarily went into a state of numbness. The life of an innocent girl was brutally taken away just because of a toxic friendship that she didn’t deserve […] → Read More
Reinventing Pakistan’s Public Diplomacy
Projecting soft power or building a soft image of a country through cultural and public diplomacy initiatives are accepted as crucial domains of modern diplomacy. This is because soft power is immensely important in building influence and pursuing national interest objectives amongst nations in a contemporary era. In fact, in many situations, it is even […] → Read More
Fixing a broken system
When China embarked on its great quest for development through investment, the edifice of the massive foreign direct investment (FDI) was originally founded on the committed stream of investment by the diaspora abroad. In Pakistan’s case, however, the FDI remains low despite various endeavours. The key to spurring investment here would be involving its nine […] → Read More
Musical chairs at the Foreign Office?
Some days ago, I came across interesting news item published in an Islamabad-based paper. To my surprise, the race for the new foreign secretary has kicked off. While I was intrigued by what was claimed, I still noticed some glaring omissions and errors, which called for a more vivid snapshot of what is actually going […] → Read More
No development without reforms
For several decades Pakistan’s state has been plagued with a plethora of intra and inter-institutional issues that essentially kept its potential for economic development restrained, and in some cases caused a serious reversal, setting the country back by leagues. Two of the state’s key organs, namely the judiciary and bureaucracy, have been unable to evolve […] → Read More
Palestine’s new guardian angel
Considering the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Arab world remained on the forefront in diplomatic and military interventions with Egypt and Jordan playing the most crucial roles. Their normalisation of relations with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively, have had their own limitations with the status quo remaining more or less intact. It was […] → Read More
When will America tame Israel?
For quite a long time, the Palestinians have been asking themselves when the world would attentively listen to their pleas of being subjugated to ethnic cleansing by an apartheid Israeli regime. That moment of reckoning is finally here when people across the world came out to support them in a singular voice on the streets […] → Read More
Reforms in the Foreign Office
In his most recent media comments on the working of Pakistan’s embassies/ consulates abroad, Prime Minister Imran Khan was gracious enough to console the Foreign Office, so as to mitigate the loss of morale caused by his earlier public chastisement of the organisation. Nevertheless, he again emphasised the need to improve consular and welfare services […] → Read More
A divided America
As I write this piece from the suburbs of Washington, DC, America is going through a tumultuous period which could change the course of its history. With a razor-thin lead achieved by former vice president Joe Biden, the elections are far from over since counting is still underway. At the same time, President Donald Trump […] → Read More
Where is the foreign office headed in 2020?
Since taking over the helms of diplomatic affairs in August 2018, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has steered Pakistan's foreign policy → Read More
A national cause
For the past several weeks, certain quarters were evidently unhappy over the much-need yet unexpected thaw in United States-Pakistan relations. While that remains part of another debate, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s trip to Washington DC last month garnered much media attention in India where observers were startled by US President Donald Trump’s offer for mediation … → Read More
Is CDA trying to sabotage Prime Minister Imran Khan's biggest initiative?
PTI government has been, particularly, unlucky to have inherited an economic meltdown that threatens to run asunder its manifesto of building millions of houses and creating 10 million jobs. While its mandarins have been at a loss to boost the floundering economy, one daring initiative announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan could have provided the … → Read More
An open letter to PM Khan-II
Mr Prime Minister, in continuation of my tri-series open letter, this second letter is meant to point out the flaws of your government’s political and bureaucratic decisions. It is hoped that you will carefully adhere to the suggestions on the issues that I am about to highlight for the stability of your regime. After coming … → Read More
An open letter to the PM Khan — I
Mr Prime Minister, I would’ve never thought about it but today I am compelled to address this letter, a first among a three-part series, to you for bringing attention to some of the key issues facing Pakistan’s domestic and foreign policy fronts. You may not remember me, but we’ve briefly met a couple of times … → Read More
An invitation to American University, Washington DC
While visiting the United States for official work a few weeks ago, I was bestowed the honour to be invited as a special guest by eminent Pakistani-American scholar, author and former diplomat Professor Akbar S. Ahmed to attend alecture by Mowahid Hussain Shah, another distinguished member of the diasporas’ legal community, at the American University’s … → Read More
Locked horns!
New York City: Dialogue? What Dialogue? New Delhi and Islamabad have once again locked horns against each other at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). The events preceding the respective addresses of the foreign ministers of the two countries were no less than a dramatic scene out of a political thriller, with … → Read More
India major impediment to regional progress: Pakistan
NEW YORK: Pakistan has accused India of creating hurdles in the way of promoting regional cooperation from the platform of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), after Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left a SAARC meeting before hearing the Pakistan’s statement. “One country is holding SAARC hostage to its unruly attitude,” he told … → Read More
Mr PM: the world awaits you in New York City!
The newly elected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government led by Prime Minister (PM), Imran Khan, has chosen Foreign Minister (FM), Shah Mehmood Qureshi, to represent the state at the 73rd UN General Assembly session to be held in New York City, next month. With over a hundred world leaders expected to be in attendance at the … → Read More
Why did the National Security Advisor resign?
At a time when relations with India and Afghanistan are potentially heading towards reduced hostilities given the recent overtures for promoting peace, National Security Advisor (NSA) Lt General (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua unexpectedly resigned a couple of weeks ago. Janjua had played a key role in resuming back-channel dialogue with New Delhi ever since taking … → Read More
Ambassadors of naught
While I have been consistently highlighting the general decline of Pakistan’s diplomacy in my recent writings, this time, the focus would be on the deterioration in the quality of the country’s contractual ambassadors. For a considerable part of its history, Pakistan’s foreign policy was steered by an exceptional set of non-career diplomats that made their … → Read More