National
Jan. 16: The National Assembly (NA) officially notified Mahmood Khan Achakzai as the Leader of the Opposition in the lower house.
Jan. 17: A huge fire erupted in Gul Plaza shopping mall located on main M.A. Jinnah Road, Karachi.
Jan. 19: Justice Muhammad Azam Khan, Justice Muhammad Asif and Justice Inaam Ameen Minhas of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) took oath as permanent judges.
Jan. 20: Pakistan and China signed 79 investment agreements worth about $4.5 billion in agriculture and food-related businesses.
Jan. 20: Pakistan and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) signed three loan agreements of $603 million.
Jan. 20: Allama Raja Nasir Abbas was declared the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House.
Jan. 20: Saudi and Kuwaiti investors in K-Electric launched a USD2 billion international arbitration case against Pakistan.
Jan. 21: Pakistan formally accepted an invitation from President Trump to join the Board of Peace (BoP) for Gaza.
Jan. 21: Three-time world champion Mohammad Asif clinched the 50th NBP National Snooker Championship 2026 title.
Jan. 22: On the sidelines of the 56th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, PMSS, along with many world leaders, signed President Trump's 'Board of Peace for Gaza'.
Jan. 22: President Zardari approved the confirmation of a total of 27 additional judges of the Sindh, Lahore and Peshawar high courts.
Jan. 24: The Supreme Court (SC) stressed that courts should not, on its own motion and without statement of a wife, convert the demand of divorce into khula.
Jan. 24: Pakistan and Somalia signed an agreement abolishing visa requirements for holders of diplomatic passports.
Jan. 26: After a 10-year pause, the government approved changing the base year for National Accounts from 2015-16 to 2025-26 in order to add and exclude certain businesses for calculating the GDP growth rate.
Jan. 27: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) upheld super tax, confirming parliament's legislative competence in taxation matters.
Jan. 27: Veteran television actor Khalid Hafeez Khan, best known for his memorable role as Mr Shamim in the popular 1991 PTV sitcom Guest House, passed away.
Jan. 28: President Trump's newly formed “Board of Peace” announced 26 countries designated as founding members of the initiative, including Pakistan.
Jan. 28: The ECP reinstated Sadaf Ehsan from JUI-F's reserved seat for women in the NA.
Jan. 28: Pakistan and Sri Lanka established a Joint Working Group on IT and Digital Economy to collaborate in emerging technologies and digital transformation.
Jan. 29: The federal government finalized a deal to privatize PIA, signing transaction documents with the Arif Habib Consortium.
Jan. 29: The Court of Arbitration, constituted under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), ordered India to produce key operational records from its hydropower projects on rivers allocated to Pakistan.
Jan. 29: After a gap of 14 years, direct flights between Pakistan and Bangladesh resumed.
Jan. 29: The Pakistan Navy took over the command of Combined Task Force-150 (CTF-150) for the 14th time.
Jan. 29: The Ministry of Law and Justice notified the appointment of 10 judges of the LHC.
Jan. 30: Arpanga Baryal, a grade-6 student from Quetta, secured a silver medal at the 7th Copernicus Natural Science Olympiad Global Final held in Houston, USA.
Jan. 31: Security forces and law enforcement agencies foiled a series of coordinated militant attacks across Balochistan, killing at least 92 foreign-sponsored terrorists in counter operations at 12 locations.
Jan. 31: Former AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry passed away. He was 71.
Jan. 31: PMSS and CM Punjab formally inaugurated the Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority (PAFDA).
Jan. 31: Eleven newly-confirmed judges of the LHC took the oath of their offices.
Feb. 01: Pakistan completed a comprehensive 3-0 T20 series whitewash and registered their first T20 series win against Australia in seven years.
Feb. 02: Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces Field Marshal Khalifa Abu-al-Qasim Haftar, along with deputy commander Lieutenant General Saddam Khalifa Haftar, called on COAS & CDF Field Marshal Asim Munir at General Headquarters (GHQ).
Feb. 02: Pakistan and Uzbekistan agreed to fast-track efforts to deepen their strategic economic partnership, setting an ambitious target to lift bilateral trade to $2 billion.
Feb. 02: Ali Madad Jattak was sworn in as Balochistan's home minister.
Feb. 03: Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived in Pakistan for an official visit.
Feb. 03: Dr. Usman Anwar, the Punjab IGP, was appointed as the new Director General of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Feb. 03: Rao Abdul Kareem was appointed to succeed Dr Usman Anwar as Punjab IGP.
Feb. 03: Dr Akbar Nasir was appointed as the new IGP Gilgit-Baltistan.
Feb. 03: Pakistan and the EU signed the Tariff Rate Quota Apportionment Agreement.
Feb. 03: The FCC disposed of a suo motu case initiated on the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya, ruling that judicial oversight of the ongoing investigation was impermissible under Pakistani law.
Feb. 03: Balochistan Minister for Agriculture and Cooperative Mir Ali Hassan Zehri tendered his resignation.
Feb. 03: The PIA signed a cargo partnership with Air France-KLM to expand its global freight reach.
Feb. 04: President Zardari approved the appointment of Naveed Kamran Baloch as the Federal Ombudsman.
Feb. 05: Pakistan and Jordan agreed to pursue a preferential trade agreement (PTA) and significantly expand bilateral cooperation across 16 priority sectors.
Feb. 05: Pakistan and Uzbekistan signed 28 agreements and MoUs across a wide range of sectors.
Feb. 05: PMSS and Rector NUST, Dr Muhammad Zahid Latif, officially conferred the honorary PhD degree and the title of professorship on Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Feb. 06: A suicide bombing at an Imambargah In Islamabad left at least 31 worshippers dead and over 170 injured.
Feb. 06: Pakistan appointed new ambassadors and high commissioners to the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Germany, Afghanistan, the United Nations (Geneva), Thailand, Norway, Tanzania and Uganda.
Feb. 06: Former Vice Chancellor of the Punjab University, Prof Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, was appointed Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for a two-year term.
Feb. 06: Pakistan's rising star cueist Ahsan Ramzan won the title of the Asian U21 Junior Championship 2026.
Feb. 07: The Balochistan government appointed former Justice Kailash Nath Kohli as the Chairman of Balochistan Public Service Commission (BPSC) for a term of three years.
Feb. 07: Chak No189-RB Rasoolpur Gaidari in Faisalabad was declared the country's first Digital Model Village.
Feb. 09: The Punjab government appointed Ali Dar – the eldest son of Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar and brother-in-law of CM Maryam – as Punjab's Minister for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Special Initiatives.
Feb. 10: Pakistan was ranked 136th out of 182 countries, compared to 135th out of 180 in 2024, in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2025.
Feb. 10: The 9th International Pakistan Army Team Spirit (PATS) Competition concluded.
Feb. 10: CM Punjab announced a Rs10 billion financial assistance for Balochistan's security forces.
Feb. 11: Pakistan and Cambodia signed an agreement between their trade promotion organisations.
Feb. 12: The UAE agreed in principle to grant a rollover of a $2 billion deposit for a short-term period of just two months.
Feb. 12: Pakistan successfully launched its second indigenous Earth Observation Satellite – the EO-2 – from China's Yangjiang Seashore Launch Centre.
Feb. 13: Former federal secretary for Information and Broadcasting Ambreen Jan assumed the charge as chairperson of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).
Feb. 15: Surgeons at the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and Research Centre (PKLI&RC), Lahore, successfully performed the country's first-ever 'Robotic Whipple Surgery'.
Types of AI
Artificial Intelligence is the ability of machines, especially computers, to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.
These tasks include things like understanding language, recognizing patterns, solving problems, and making decisions.
Essentially, AI enables machines to think and learn from experience, just like humans do, but often at a much faster pace with access to vast amounts of data.
AI can be classified into two types: Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) also known as weak AI and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) also referred to as strong AI.
ANI is designed for specific tasks and excels within a narrow domain.
Examples include virtual assistants like Siri, recommendation systems on platforms like Netflix, and image recognition software. ANI systems are highly specialised and cannot transfer their expertise to unrelated tasks.
In contrast, AGI aims to replicate human cognitive abilities, enabling it to perform any intellectual task a human can do.
AGI would possess general reasoning skills, understand context, and adapt to new situations across various domains. It would be capable of autonomous learning and problem-solving without requiring task-specific programming.
What is 'Trade Bazooka'?
The “Trade Bazooka” is actually a law of the European Union (EU). Its official name is the Anti-Coercion Instrument.
This law is meant to protect the EU. If any country tries to pressure the EU or its companies unfairly—such as by threatening tariffs—the EU can respond with tough economic actions.
Under this law, the EU can:
Stop the import and export of goods from that country
Bar that country's companies from EU government contracts
Restrict investments coming from that country
In simple terms, the EU can shut access to its huge market of 450 million people. This could lead to billions of dollars in losses for companies in the targeted country.
If used, this move could cause massive losses for American companies and seriously impact the US economy.
Franz Edelman Award
It is the world's most prestigious award in the field of Operations Research (OR) and advanced analytics.
It is widely known as the “Nobel Prize of Operations Research and Analytics.”
Instituted by: INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) a global professional body for analytics and OR.
It is named after Franz Edelman, a pioneer in management science and operations research.
The award recognizes the real-world, high-impact applications of operations research, advanced analytics, mathematical modeling and data-driven decision-making.
Balance of Power
Diplomacy, war and international law are seen as major tools that sovereign states use to interact in an anarchical international system. Since this system is also anti-hegemonic, meaning it resists attempts by any one actor (a state or an alliance of states) to gain power over others, it pushes states to engage in balancing behaviour.
These dynamics form the analytical foundation of the balance of power, a concept that helps explain how states respond to shifting distributions of power and perceived threats.
The term balance of power indicates the relative distribution of power among states into equal or unequal shares. Inequality and potential for violence, which characterize the international system, encourage states to maintain and preserve equilibrium: dominant states guard against potential challengers, while others form an alliance to restrain a potential hegemonic state.
Michael Sheehan, in his book, The Balance of Power: History & Theory (1996), says: “The phrase 'balance of power' implies a certain permanence – a 'balance' is a finished product. The reality of international relations, however, is that movement and change, not stasis are its characteristic features…”.
“Power is never permanently balanced, rather the states must be permanently engaged in the act of balancing power, of adjusting and refining it in response to the perpetual ebb and flow of power within the system,” he noted.
Martin Griffiths
Terry O'Callaghan, and Steven C. Roach note certain conditions that the balance of power systems have:
i) a multiplicity of sovereign states unconstrained by any legitimate central authority;
ii) continuous but controlled competition over scarce resources or conflicting values;
iii) an unequal distribution of status, wealth, and power potential among the political actors that make up the system.
