Asia

From deadly floods in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, to antigovernment protests in the Philippines and demonstrations in Italy to show solidarity with Gaza, here is a look at the week in photos.

Ex-prime minister’s family calls for prayers for her early recovery after hospitalisation for a lung infection.

Bangladeshi former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has been hospitalised in “very critical” condition, according to members of her party, as her family and supporters urged well-wishers to pray for her speedy recovery.

Zia’s personal physician, Dr A Z M Zahid Hossein, told reporters late on Saturday that the 80-year-old politician, who was taken to the Evercare Hospital in Dhaka on November 23, remains in intensive care.

She was admitted with symptoms of a lung infection and Hossein said she appeared to be responding to the treatment.

“At this moment, I can say her condition has been in the same stage for the last three days. In doctors’ language, we say ‘she is responding to the treatment’,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Star news website.

“Please pray so that she can continue to receive this treatment.”

Hossein’s comments came a day after the secretary-general of Zia’s Bangladesh National Party (BNP), Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, told reporters that her “condition was very critical”.

According to the Daily Star, Zia has “heart problems, liver and kidney issues, diabetes, lung problems, arthritis, and eye-related illnesses”.

She has a permanent pacemaker and previously underwent stenting for her heart, the outlet reported.

Earlier on Saturday, BNP’s vice chairman, Ahmed Azam Khan, told reporters that an air ambulance was on standby to take Zia abroad for advanced treatment if her medical condition stabilises.

Zia’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, who has been based in London since 2008, called on the people of Bangladesh to pray for his mother’s recovery.

“We express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude for all your prayers and love for the highly respected Begum Khaleda Zia,” Rahman, 60, said in a social media post on Saturday.

“We fervently request you to continue your prayers for her early recovery.”

Zia, who served three terms as prime minister, was jailed for corruption in 2018 under recently ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, which also barred her from travelling abroad for medical treatment.

She was released last year, shortly after Hasina’s removal.

Despite her ill health, Zia has promised to campaign in elections expected in February 2026, in which the BNP is widely seen as a frontrunner.

Waiting in front of the hospital since morning, Liton Molla, a driver for a private company, said he rushed there after hearing about Zia’s condition, describing her as his “dear leader”.

“I just pray she recovers and can contest in the election,” Liton, 45, told the AFP news agency.

“At this moment, Bangladesh needs a leader like Khaleda Zia.”

Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, also issued a statement.

“During this transitional period to democracy, Khaleda Zia is a source of utmost inspiration for the nation. Her recovery is very important for the country,” he said on Friday night.

Some 44,000 people displaced by flooding across the country as relief operations intensify amid widespread destruction.

Sri Lanka has made an appeal for international assistance as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing.

The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes across the country, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said on Saturday.

Although Cyclone Ditwah was heading towards neighbouring India to the north on Saturday, more landslides have hit the central district of Kandy, 115km (70 miles) east of the capital Colombo, with the main access road under water at several locations.

DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of members of the army, navy and air force as he announced the latest casualty figures.

“Relief operations with the help of the armed forces are under way,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo.

Mahesh Gunasekara, the secretary-general of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, said many people have been stranded in various flood-hit areas as rescue crews are trying to reach them.

“Relief needs have been increasing. After two days, water has still been swelling,” he said.

“Although the cyclone is slowly moving away from the country, it is not over for us yet,” Gunasekara added.

Flooding prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders for those living along the banks of the Kelani River, which flows into the Indian Ocean from Colombo.

The Kelani burst its banks on Friday evening, forcing hundreds of people into temporary shelters, the DMC said.

The government issued an appeal for international help and asked Sri Lankans abroad to make cash donations to support nearly half a million affected people.

Officials said Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya had met with Colombo-based diplomats to update them on the situation and seek the help of their governments.

India was the first to respond, sending two planeloads of relief supplies, while an Indian warship already in Colombo on a previously planned goodwill visit donated its rations to help victims.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences over the deaths in Sri Lanka and said New Delhi was ready to send more aid.

“We stand ready to provide more aid and assistance as the situation evolves,” Modi said on X.

While rain had eased in most parts of Sri Lanka on Saturday, including the capital, parts of the island’s north were still experiencing showers due to the residual effects of Cyclone Ditwah.

DMC officials said they expected flood levels to exceed those recorded in 2016, when 71 people were killed nationwide.

This week’s weather-related toll is the highest since June last year, when 26 people were killed following heavy rains.

In December, 17 people died in flooding and landslides.

Pause on visas and halting of asylum applications comes after shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC.

The US State Department has announced it is “immediately” pausing issuing visas for individuals travelling on Afghan passports to protect “public safety”, as President Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown intensifies in the wake of a deadly attack on two National Guard members.

The announcement on Friday came as United States immigration authorities said they are also halting decisions on all asylum applications for the foreseeable future.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in a post on X on Friday that the State Department had “paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports”.

The move comes after authorities named Afghan national Rahmanaullah Lakanwal as the main suspect in Wednesday’s shooting in Washington, DC, which killed one National Guard member and left another in critical condition.

“The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people,” Rubio said.

President Trump’s State Department has paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports. 

The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people. https://t.co/HuR1Lj7F9t

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) November 28, 2025

Lakanwal is alleged to have ambushed West Virginia National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe in an unprovoked attack as they patrolled near the White House.

On Thursday evening, the Trump administration confirmed that 20-year-old Beckstrom had died from her injuries, while 24-year-old Wolfe remains in critical condition.

The CIA confirmed this week that Lakanwal had worked for the spy agency in Afghanistan before emigrating to the US shortly after the withdrawal of Western forces from the country in 2021.

The office of US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, announced on Friday that the charges against Lakanwal had been upgraded to first-degree murder, along with two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.

In a separate announcement on Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph Edlow said the agency had also paused all asylum decisions in the interest of the “safety of the American people”.

“USCIS has halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” Edlow said in a post on X.

A day earlier, Edlow said he had ordered “a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern” at the direction of Trump.

The moves are the latest in a series of escalating restrictions imposed on immigration into the US at Trump’s urging.

Trump, who called the deadly Washington, DC, shooting a “terrorist attack”, has on several occasions over recent days attacked former President Joe Biden’s administration’s immigration policies, including the granting of visas to Afghan nationals who worked with US forces in Afghanistan.

Lakanwal came to the US under a Biden-era programme known as “Operation Allies Welcome”, following the US withdrawal in 2021.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump ordered authorities to re-examine all green card applications from 19 “countries of concern”, before saying he planned to suspend immigration from “all Third World countries”.

He did not define the term “Third World”, but the phrase is often used as a shorthand for developing countries in the Global South.

Trump also said that he would “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country”.

“[I will] denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilization,” he said.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has already taken aggressive measures to restrict immigration, announcing in October his administration would accept only 7,500 refugees in 2026 – the lowest number since 1980.

History Illustrated is a series of perspectives that puts news events and current affairs into historical context, using graphics generated with artificial intelligence.

Authorities say 79 people remain missing and thousands of families have been displaced from their homes across Sumatra.

The death toll from floods and landslides on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra this week has risen to 174, a disaster official said, with about 80 more people still missing, as a punishing tropical storm system and heavy monsoon rains have battered the region.

“As of this afternoon, we have recorded that for the entire North Sumatra province, there have been 116 deaths and 42 people are still being searched for,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto announced on Friday.

He said another 35 were killed in the island’s Aceh province and another 23 in West Sumatra.

While the rain had stopped, 79 people were still missing and thousands of families were displaced, he added.

Residents in Sumatra’s Padang Pariaman region, where a total of 22 people died, had to cope with water levels at least 1 metre (3.3ft) high, and had still not been reached by search and rescue personnel on Friday.

In the town of Batang Toru, in northern Sumatra, residents on Friday buried seven unclaimed victims in a mass grave. The decomposing bodies, wrapped in black plastic, were lifted from the back of a truck onto a wide plot of land as onlookers covered their noses.

Communications remained down in some parts of the island, and authorities were working to restore power and clear roads blocked by landslide debris, said Abdul Muhari, spokesman for Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency.

Indonesia would continue to airlift aid and rescue personnel into stricken areas on Friday, he added.

In Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, 53-year-old Misniati described a terrifying battle against rising floodwaters to reach her husband at home.

She said that, returning from early morning prayers at a mosque, “I noticed the street was flooded.

“I tried to run back to my house to tell my husband, and the water was already reaching my waist,” she told the AFP news agency, adding that it was up to her chest by the time she reached home.

Flooding disasters elsewhere in Asia

Meanwhile, in Thailand, the government said 145 people had been killed by floods across eight southern provinces. It said a total of more than 3.5 million people had been affected.

In the southern city of Hat Yai, the hardest-hit part of Thailand, the rain had finally stopped on Friday, but residents were still ankle-deep in floodwaters, and many remained without electricity as they assessed the damage to their property over the last week.

Some residents said they were spared the worst of the floods but were still suffering from their effects.

In neighbouring Malaysia, where two people have been confirmed dead, tropical storm Senyar made landfall at about midnight and has since weakened.

Meteorological authorities are still bracing themselves for heavy rain and wind, and warned that rough seas could pose risks for small boats.

A total of 30,000 evacuees remain in shelters, down from more than 34,000 on Thursday.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that it had already evacuated 1,459 Malaysian nationals stranded in more than 25 flood-hit hotels in Thailand, adding that it would work to rescue the remaining 300 still caught up in flood zones.

Separately, at least 56 people were killed by a cyclone in the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, authorities said.

The government announces the closing of all government offices and schools as weather conditions grow worse.

Sri Lanka has closed government offices and schools as the death toll from floods and landslides across the country has risen to 56, with more than 600 houses damaged, according to officials.

Sri Lanka began grappling with severe weather last week, and the conditions worsened on Thursday with heavy downpours that flooded homes, fields and roads, and triggered landslides across the country.

More than 25 people were killed on Thursday in landslides in the central mountainous tea-growing regions of Badulla and Nuwara Eliya, which is about 300km (186 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.

Another 21 people were missing and 14 were injured in the Badulla and Nuwara Eliya areas, according to the government’s disaster management centre, quoted by The Associated Press news agency.

Others died in landslides in different parts of the country.

Daily life heavily impacted

As the weather conditions grew worse, the government announced the closing of all government offices and schools on Friday.

Due to heavy rains, most reservoirs and rivers have overflowed, blocking roads. Authorities stopped passenger trains and closed roads in many parts of the country after rocks, mud and trees fell on roads and railway tracks, which were also flooded in some areas.

Local television showed an air force helicopter rescuing three people stranded on the roof of a house surrounded by floods on Thursday, while the navy and police used boats to transport residents.

Footage on Thursday also showed a car being swept away by floodwaters near the eastern town of Ampara, leaving three passengers dead.

At least 10 injured as traffic and trains disrupted amid severe weather and rising floodwaters across multiple regions.

Landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains have caused more than 40 deaths in Sri Lanka, where the authorities have stopped passenger trains and closed roads in some parts of the country, officials say.

The government’s Disaster Management Centre on Thursday said 25 of the reported deaths occurred in the mountainous tea-growing regions of Badulla and Nuwara Eliya in central Sri Lanka about 300km (186 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.

Another 21 people were missing due to landslides in the same areas while 10 people were injured, the centre said.

Sri Lanka began experiencing severe weather last week, made worse by downpours over the weekend that wreaked havoc by flooding homes, fields and roads.

Reservoirs and rivers have overflowed, blocking roads. Some key roads connecting the provinces have been closed, officials said.

Authorities stopped trains in some areas in the mountainous region after rocks, mud and trees fell onto railway tracks. Local television showed workers removing the debris. In some areas, floods have inundated the tracks.

Local television showed an air force helicopter rescuing three people stranded on the roof of a house marooned by floods while navy and police used boats to transport residents.

Footage also showed a car being swept away by floodwaters near the eastern town of Ampara, about 410km (256 miles) east of Colombo, killing three passengers.

This week’s weather-related toll is the highest since June last year when 26 people were killed due to heavy rains. In December, 17 people were killed by flooding and landslides.

The worst flooding this century was in June 2003 when 254 people were killed.

Sri Lanka depends on seasonal monsoon rains for irrigation and hydroelectricity, but experts have warned that the country faces more frequent floods due to the climate crisis.

Public prosecutor vows to appeal the verdict saying the government wants the maximum penalty.

Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to 21 years in prison in separate corruption cases related to allocations of land in a government project, dealing another legal blow to the country’s former exiled leader.

In a decision issued on Thursday, a court found Hasina guilty of illegally securing plots of land in a suburb of capital Dhaka for herself and her family despite their ineligibility.

Last week, Hasina was sentenced to death by hanging, after she was found guilty for crimes against humanity for ordering a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her.

Hasina fled Bangladesh by helicopter on August 5, 2024, after weeks of student-led protests against her autocratic rule.

The 78-year-old former leader is currently residing in India and has defied court orders that she return to Bangladesh. New Delhi is said to be studying Dhaka’s extradition request.

Shaina Begum, the mother of a 20-year old student Sajjat Hosen Sojal, who was shot and his body burned by the police hours before the student-led uprising forced Hasina to resign and flee the country, told Al Jazeera after the verdict, “I cannot be calm until she [Hasina] is brought back and hanged in this country,”

Hundreds of families who lost loved ones in the protests wonder if the deposed prime minister will actually face justice.

The three corruption cases were brought against her by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over land grabs of lucrative plots in the Purbachal New Town project .

Hasina’s conduct “demonstrates a persistent corruption mindset rooted in entitlement, unchecked power, and a greedy eye for public property”, ruled judge Abdullah Al Mamun.

“Treating public land as a private asset, she directed her greedy eye toward state resources and manipulated official procedures to benefit herself and her close relatives.”

Each sentence was seven years in prison, and Mamun ruled that Hasina would need to serve them consecutively.

Her son Sajeeb Wazed and daughter Saima Wazed were each sentenced to five years in prison in one of the three cases.

Other details of the verdict were not available immediately.

Public prosecutor Khan Moinul Hasan said he would appeal, telling AFP news agency that he was “not satisfied” with the verdict and wanted the maximum sentence.

Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party have denounced the trials against her.

She did not appoint a defence lawyer, and some global human rights groups have questioned the credibility and fairness of the trial process against Hasina.

Other cases also involving alleged land grabbing are still pending, and a separate verdict is expected December 1.

Bangladesh has been going through a difficult political transition under an interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, and new elections are planned in February 2026.

The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power.

A devastating fire swept through Dhaka’s sprawling Korail shantytown, destroying or damaging some 1,500 shanties and reducing tin-roofed dwellings to smouldering ruins, officials reported.

The inferno, which erupted on Tuesday evening, required 16 hours to extinguish, according to Rashed Bin Khalid, a duty officer at the fire department.

Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, the fire service’s director, confirmed approximately 1,500 shanties were burned or damaged, leaving thousands without shelter.

Official records indicate about 60,000 families — many displaced by climate disasters — inhabit this 65-hectare (160-acre) shantytown. Korail sits adjacent to Dhaka’s affluent Gulshan and Banani districts, surrounded by modern high-rise developments.

Dense smoke enveloped the area as flames consumed dwellings throughout the night.

By Wednesday, displaced residents desperately sifted through debris, attempting to salvage their belongings.

Firefighters reported difficulty accessing the blaze due to the area’s narrow pathways.

Dhaka, home to 10.2 million people as of 2024, contains hundreds of informal settlements populated by rural migrants fleeing poverty, exploitation, and climate-related calamities. Those living there typically survive on daily wages earned as rickshaw drivers, housemaids, and cleaners.

Some 60,000 families, many of them climate refugees, live in the area which covers more than 65 hectares (160 acres).

A fire in a densely populated and impoverished area in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka has burned or damaged 1,500 shanties, leaving thousands homeless, authorities say.

No casualties were reported as of Wednesday, a day after the fierce blaze broke out at the Korail shantytown. According to Rashed Bin Khalid, a fire department officer, it took 16 hours to douse the fire, which began on Tuesday evening.

The fire service’s director, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, said about 1,500 ramshackle dwellings were burned or damaged in the blaze, and thousands became homeless. Heavy smoke blanketed the area as flames engulfed the environs overnight.

According to official data, some 60,000 families, many of them climate refugees, live in the area, which covers more than 65 hectares (160 acres).

The area straddles Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan and Banani neighbourhoods, and it is surrounded by clusters of high-rise apartment and office buildings.

On Wednesday, residents who lost their homes were desperate to collect their valuables as they scoured the debris. Firefighters said they struggled to reach the area because of narrow alleys.

Dhaka, a city of 10.2 million people as of 2024, has hundreds of shantytowns where people from rural Bangladesh migrate because of poverty and exploitation.

Climate-induced disasters also push them to the city’s poorest areas, where they live on low-paid daily labour such as driving rickshaws and working as housemaids and cleaners.

Nine of the top 10 mega-cities are in Asia, with Bangladesh’s Dhaka projected to be the world’s largest city by 2050.

A new United Nations report has found that Indonesia’s capital Jakarta is the world’s largest city with 41.9 million people living there, followed by Dhaka in Bangladesh, which is home to 36.6 million.

A low-lying coastal city located in the west of the densely populated island of Java, Jakarta rose from second place to replace Tokyo, which had been named the world’s largest city in the UN’s most recent assessment published back in 2000.

The Japanese capital’s relatively steady population of 33.4 million saw it fall to third place behind Bangladesh’s densely populated capital, Dhaka, which jumped to second place from ninth and is now projected to become the world’s largest city by 2050.

The World Urbanization Prospects 2025 report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs also found that the number of megacities – urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants – has increased to 33, four times more than the eight megacities that existed worldwide in 1975.

Asia is home to 19 of the world’s 33 megacities, and nine out of the top 10. In addition to Jakarta, Dhaka and Tokyo, the other Asian cities in the top 10 are: New Delhi, India (30.2 million); Shanghai, China (29.6 million); Guangzhou, China (27.6 million); Manila, Philippines (24.7 million); Kolkata, India (22.5 million); and Seoul, South Korea (22.5 million).

With a population of 32 million people, Egypt’s Cairo is the only city in the top 10 that is outside Asia, according to the UN.

Sao Paulo in Brazil, with 18.9 million people, is the largest city in the Americas, while Lagos in Nigeria also grew rapidly, making it the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa.

Still growing

Dhaka’s rapid growth has partly been driven by people from rural areas moving to the capital, searching for opportunities or fleeing hometowns due to problems including flooding and rising sea levels, made worse by climate change.

Jakarta is also facing problems due to rising sea levels. It is estimated that up to one quarter of the city could be under water by 2050.

The problem is so serious that Indonesia’s government is building a new purpose-built capital city in Nusantara in Borneo island’s East Kalimantan province. Yet while the city’s officials and parliamentary buildings will have a new home, the UN estimates that 10 million more people will be living in Jakarta by 2050.

The city’s growing population will also have to contend with concerns over inequality and affordability, which saw thousands of people take to the streets of the Indonesian city earlier this year, reflecting rising anger over the conditions of low-income workers, including app-based motorcycle ride-share and delivery riders.

Meanwhile, according to the UN report, Iran’s capital Tehran, which is facing water rations because it is close to running out of water, currently has a population of nine million people.

The new assessment also saw changes as the UN adopted new measures to try to address inconsistencies in how different countries defined urbanisation.

The UN also said that in most cases its report reflected the size of individual cities, rather than two cities that have grown together, with a small number of exceptions.

The new definition defined a city as a “contiguous agglomeration” of one-kilometre-square grid cells with a density of at least 1,500 inhabitants per square kilometre and a total population of at least 50,000.

Pakistan has been accused of launching air strikes that killed civilians in Afghanistan, a day after three Pakistani security personnel were killed in a bombing.

Recent peace efforts and a temporary ceasefire have failed.

What’s driving the violence – and what are the risks?

Presenter: Imran Khan

Guests:

Obaidullah Baheer – Adjunct lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan

Sahar Khan – Security analyst focusing on South Asia

Hameed Hakimi – Associate fellow in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House

Bitter rivals India and Pakistan will face off in Group A at next year’s 20-team competition.

Archrivals India and Pakistan will clash in a politically-charged Twenty20 World Cup match in Colombo on February 15, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said as it announced the draw on Tuesday.

The 20-team tournament will be played across eight venues – five in India and three in Sri Lanka – between February 7 and March 8, the ICC said in a statement.

Pakistan will play all their games in Sri Lanka because of their soured political relations with India.

The March 8 final is scheduled for the western Indian city of Ahmedabad but would be moved to Colombo if Pakistan reach it.

A military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours in May overshadowed the subsequent Asia Cup 2025 in which India refused to accept the winners’ trophy from Asian Cricket Council chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is Pakistan’s interior minister.

The teams in the tournament have been divided into five groups of four, with the top two advancing to the Super Eight phase. The top four in that will qualify for the semifinals.

Defending champions India will begin their Group A campaign against the United States in Mumbai on February 7.

Sri Lanka and Australia are in Group B, which also includes Ireland, Zimbabwe and Oman.

England and West Indies, both twice winners, will face first-timers Italy and Asian sides Bangladesh and Nepal in Group C.

New Zealand, South Africa, Afghanistan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates make up Group D.

About 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed worldwide last year – 60 percent of them at the hands of partners or relatives.

More than 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members around the world in 2024, the equivalent of one every 10 minutes or 137 per day, according to a new report.

Released to mark the 2025 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Tuesday, the report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women warned that femicide continues to claim tens of thousands of lives each year with “no sign of real progress”.

Overall, 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed worldwide last year – 60 percent of those deaths were at the hands of partners or relatives.

By way of comparison, just 11 percent of male homicide victims were killed by family members or intimate partners.

The report warns that many killings are preventable, but that gaps in protection, police responses and social support systems leave women and girls at heightened risk of fatal violence.

At the same time, it is thought that the figures are likely an underestimate, due to poor data collection in many countries, survivors’ fear of reporting violence, and outdated legal definitions that make cases difficult to identify.

Experts say economic instability, conflict, forced displacement and limited access to safe housing can worsen the risks faced by women trapped in abusive situations.

“The home remains a dangerous and sometimes lethal place for too many women and girls around the world,” said John Brandolino, acting executive director of UNODC.

He added that the findings underline the need for stronger prevention efforts and criminal justice responses.

Sarah Hendriks, director of UN Women’s policy division, said femicides often sit on a “continuum of violence” that can start with controlling behaviour, harassment and online abuse.

“Digital violence often doesn’t stay online,” she said. “It can escalate offline and, in the worst cases, contribute to lethal harm.”

According to the report, the highest regional rate of femicide by intimate partners or family members was recorded in Africa, followed by the Americas, Oceania, Asia and Europe.

UN Women says coordinated efforts involving schools, workplaces, public services and local communities are needed to spot early signs of violence.

The campaigners also called on governments to increase funding for shelters, legal aid and specialist support services.

The findings were released as the UN’s annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign started.

Islamabad, Pakistan – A new assessment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded that corruption in Pakistan is behind an economic crisis driven by “state capture” – where public policy is manipulated to benefit a narrow circle of political and business elites.

The Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA), finalised in November 2025, presents a grim picture of a system marked by dysfunctional institutions that are unable to enforce the rule of law or safeguard public resources.

According to the 186-page report, corruption in Pakistan is “persistent and corrosive”, distorting markets, eroding public trust and undermining fiscal stability.

The report, requested by the Pakistani government, warns that without dismantling the structures of “elite privilege”, the country’s economic stagnation will persist.

While corruption vulnerabilities are present at all levels of government, according to the report, “the most economically damaging manifestations involve privileged entities that exert influence over key economic sectors, including those owned by or affiliated with the state.”

The report argues that Pakistan stands to gain substantial economic benefits if governance improves and accountability is strengthened. Such reforms, it notes, could significantly lift the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which stood at $340bn in 2024.

“Based on cross-country analysis of the reform experience of emerging markets, IMF analysis projects that Pakistan could generate between a 5 to 6.5 percent increase in GDP by implementing a package of governance reforms over the course of five years,” the report said.

Stefan Dercon, a professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford who has advised the Pakistani government on economic reforms, said that he agreed that the absence of accountability in corruption cases was eating away at the country’s economic potential.

“Failure of implementation [of laws and principles of accountability] gives vested interests too often free rein and addressing this must be at the core of efforts for economic reform,” he told Al Jazeera.

Here is what we know about the IMF report, the areas of weakness it highlights, the policy recommendations it makes, and what the experts say.

What does the IMF report say?

Pakistan has turned to the IMF 25 times since 1958, making it one of the fund’s most frequent borrowers. Nearly every administration, whether military or civilian, has sought IMF assistance, reflecting chronic balance of payments crises.

The current programme was started under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The GCDA’s release comes ahead of the IMF executive board’s expected approval of a $1.2bn disbursement next month, part of the ongoing 37-month-long, $7bn programme.

Pakistan narrowly avoided default in 2023, surviving only after the IMF extended an earlier nine-month deal, which was followed by the ongoing 37-month programme.

According to the GCDA, Pakistan consistently ranks near the bottom of global governance indicators among nations. Between 2015 and 2024, the country’s score on control of corruption remained stagnant, placing it among the worst performers worldwide and within its neighbourhood.

At the heart of the IMF’s findings is the concept of “state capture”, where, according to the fund, corruption becomes the norm and, in fact, the primary means of governance. The report argues that the Pakistani state apparatus is frequently used to enrich specific groups at the expense of the broader public.

The report estimates that “elite privilege” – defined as access to subsidies, tax relief and lucrative state contracts for a select few – drains billions of dollars from the economy annually, while tax evasion and regulatory capture crowd out genuine private sector investment.

These findings echo a 2021 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, which said economic privileges granted to Pakistan’s elite groups, including politicians and the powerful military, amount to roughly 6 percent of the country’s economy.

Ali Hasanain, an associate professor of economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, said the IMF’s description of elite capture is accurate but added that it was “hardly a revelation”.

He pointed to the 2021 UNDP report and other domestic studies that describe how Pakistan’s economic system has long served politically connected actors who secure “preferential access to land, credit, tariffs and regulatory exemptions.”

“The IMF diagnostic repeats what many domestic studies, including those by the World Bank and Pakistan’s own institutions, have already emphasised: Powerful interests shape rules to maintain their advantage,” he told Al Jazeera.

The new report notes that tax expenditures, including exemptions and concessions granted to influential sectors such as real estate, manufacturing and energy, cost the state 4.61 percent of GDP in the 2023 fiscal year alone.

It also calls for an end to special treatment for influential public sector entities in government contracts and urges greater transparency in the functioning of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

The SIFC, created in June 2023 during Sharif’s first term, is a high-powered body comprising civilian and military leaders and tasked with promoting investment by easing bureaucratic obstacles. Although positioned as a flagship initiative jointly owned by the government and the military, it has faced sustained criticism for a lack of transparency.

The report describes broad legal immunity granted to SIFC officials, many from the armed forces, as a major governance concern. It warns that this immunity, combined with the council’s authority to exempt projects from regulatory requirements, creates significant risks.

Highlighting the absence of transparency, the GCDA says the SIFC should publish annual reports with details of all investments it has facilitated, including concessions granted and the rationale behind them.

“The recently established Special Investment Facilitation Council, which has been vested with substantial authority to facilitate foreign investments, operates with untested transparency and accountability provisions,” the report said.

Judiciary and rule of law

The report identifies the judiciary as another critical bottleneck. Pakistan’s legal system is overwhelmed by more than two million pending cases. In 2023 alone, the number of unresolved cases before the Supreme Court increased by 7 percent.

Over the last 12 months, Pakistan has passed two constitutional amendments, both of which faced severe backlash from many in the legal community who said that they represent a “constitutional surrender”. In essence, the amendments create a parallel Federal Constitutional Court that critics say will reduce the powers of the Supreme Court, while also changing rules that guide how judges are appointed and transferred, in ways that opponents say could give the executive great control over whom to promote and whom to punish.

The government, however, has insisted that the changes were made to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the judicial system.

Similar credibility challenges affect the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the two principal bodies responsible for investigating corruption.

The GCDA cites a 2024 government task force, which found that NAB has, at times, exceeded its mandate and launched politically motivated cases. This selective accountability, the report says, has damaged public trust and created a climate of fear within the bureaucracy, slowing decision-making.

While NAB says it recovered 5.3 trillion rupees ($17bn) between January 2023 and December 2024, the report notes that conviction rates remain low.

The diagnostic calls for fundamental reforms to NAB’s appointment processes to ensure independence and a shift from “political victimisation” to “rule-based enforcement”.

Was the report necessary?

The IMF outlines reforms which experts acknowledged would be comprehensive if pursued by authorities.

Yet analysts also note that international institutions and domestic researchers have repeatedly made similar observations in the past, with little follow-through by the government.

Sajid Amin Javed, a senior economist at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad, says the fact that Pakistan is already under an IMF programme may compel the government to take the findings more seriously.

He said that the IMF report could have gone further than it has by acknowledging that many of its recommendations have been made by others in the past, “without bringing any change”.

“Perhaps the assessment could have been made to see why these failures happened,” he said.

Javed welcomed the report’s attempt to quantify economic losses from corruption, hoping it might push policymakers to act.

“Corruption and governance are intrinsically tied to each other. Corruption leads to weak governance, and weak governance promotes corruption, making them conjoined,” he said.

Hasanain, however, was more sceptical, questioning why the IMF waited for a formal request from the Pakistani government despite having its own internal assessment mechanisms.

What can the government do?

Analysts said Pakistan’s economic landscape has long been shaped by politically connected actors who enjoy preferential access to land, credit, tariffs and regulatory exemptions. The IMF’s observations, they noted, are not new.

Hasanain argues that corruption, including elite capture of markets, regulatory bodies and public policy, is political in nature and cannot be addressed without deeper reforms.

“Without a broader political awakening, governance reforms will remain technical fixes built on unstable foundations. Ultimately, elite capture is undone only when political incentives change,” he said.

Javed, meanwhile, pointed to what he called policy design capture, arguing that those responsible for drafting governance and anticorruption reforms are often part of the same elite ecosystem.

“Elite policy capture on policy design is perhaps the most important component which allows the elite capture. The report’s recommendations show that we must go for participatory and inclusive methods to get out of our current conundrum,” he said.

For Hasanain, the most urgent reform is a unified economic turnaround plan that is fully owned by the prime minister and communicated clearly.

He said that Pakistan’s economic landscape was cluttered with “committees, councils, task forces and overlapping ministries”, each producing its own documents without accountability.

“The government should consolidate these scattered structures into one clear reform platform with defined priorities, timelines and measurable outcomes. Progress should be published monthly, debated publicly, and subjected to independent scrutiny,” he said.

Hasanain argued that such consolidation would improve coordination, build public trust and signal seriousness to investors.

For Javed, the most immediate priority is reforming the public procurement system, which governs how government bodies buy goods and services using public funds.

“Our procurement system is not working on value of money, but instead it focuses on quantity of money, where lowest bidder wins the bid,” he said, arguing that this approach meant that contracts often did not go to those best suited to deliver what was needed. “This system needs urgent modernisation.”

“An urgent realisation is the order of the day that if we need to have a flourishing, transparent economy, we have no choice but to overhaul our entire economic framework,” Javed said.

Security camera video shows the moment suicide bombers attacked a security complex in Pakistan. Six people were killed in total, including two attackers who were shot dead.

The unions demand the laws be withdrawn before nationwide protests they plan to hold on Wednesday.

Ten large Indian trade unions have condemned the government’s rollout on Friday of new labour codes, the biggest such overhaul in decades, as a “deceptive fraud” against workers.

The unions, aligned with parties opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanded in a statement late on Friday that the laws be withdrawn before nationwide protests they plan to hold on Wednesday.

One of the trade unions, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, organised protest marches on Saturday in the eastern city Bhubaneswar, where hundreds of workers gathered and burned copies of the new labour codes.

Modi’s government implemented the four labour codes, approved by parliament five years ago, as it seeks to simplify work rules, some dating to British colonial rule, and liberalise conditions for investment.

It says the changes improve worker protections. While the new rules offer social security and minimum-wage benefits, they also allow companies to hire and fire workers more easily.

Unions have strongly opposed the changes, organising multiple nationwide protests over the past five years.

The Labour Ministry did not immediately respond on Saturday to a Reuters news agency request for comment on the union demands. The government has held over a dozen consultations with unions since June 2024, an internal ministry document on the labour codes shows.

The rules allow longer factory shifts and night work for women, while raising the threshold for firms that need prior approval for layoffs to 300 workers from 100, giving companies greater flexibility in workforce management.

Businesses have long criticised India’s work rules as a drag on manufacturing, which contributes less than a fifth to the country’s nearly $4 trillion economy.

But the Association of Indian Entrepreneurs expressed concern that the new rules would significantly increase operating costs for small and midsize enterprises and disrupt business continuity across key sectors.

It asked the government for transitional support and flexible implementation mechanisms. Not all unions oppose the overhaul.

The right-wing Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, aligned with Modi’s party, called on states to implement them after consultations on some of the codes. Indian states are expected to craft rules aligning with the new federal codes covering wages, industrial relations, social security and occupational safety.

China on Friday took its feud with Tokyo over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Taikachi’s recent comments on Taiwan to the United Nations, as tensions between the East Asian neighbours deepened and ties plunged to their lowest since 2023.

“If Japan dares to attempt an armed intervention in the cross-Strait situation, it would be an act of aggression,” China’s permanent representative to the UN, Fu Cong, wrote in a letter on Friday to the global body’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, referring to the strait that separates mainland China from self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing insists belongs to China. Beijing has not ruled out the possibility of forcibly taking Taiwan.

The diplomatic spat began earlier in November when Taikachi, who took office only in October, made remarks about how Japan would respond to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. Those remarks angered Beijing, which has demanded retractions, although the Japanese PM has not made one.

However, the spat has now rapidly escalated into a trade war involving businesses on both sides, and has deepened security tensions over a contested territory that has long been a flashpoint for the two countries.

Here’s what we know about the dispute:

What did Japan’s PM say about Taiwan?

While speaking to parliament on November 7, Taikachi, a longtime Taiwan supporter, said a Chinese naval blockade or other action against Taiwan could prompt a Japanese military response. The response was not typical, and Taikachi appeared to go several steps further than her predecessors, who had only in the past expressed concern about the Chinese threat to Taiwan, but had never mentioned a response.

“If it involves the use of warships and military actions, it could by all means become a survival-threatening situation,” Taikachi told parliament, responding to an opposition politician’s queries in her first parliamentary grilling.

That statement immediately raised protests from China’s foreign and defence ministries, which demanded retractions. China’s consul general in Osaka, Xue Jian, a day after, criticised the comments and appeared to make threats in a now deleted post on X, saying: “We have no choice but to cut off that dirty neck that has been lunged at us without hesitation. Are you ready?”

That post by Xue also raised anger in Japan, and some officials began calling for the diplomat’s expulsion. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara protested to Beijing over Xue’s X message, saying it was “extremely inappropriate,” while urging China to explain. Japan’s Foreign Ministry also demanded the post be deleted. Chinese officials, meanwhile, defended the comments as coming from a personal standpoint.

On November 14, China’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Japanese ambassador and warned of a “crushing defeat” if Japan interfered with Taiwan. The following day, Japan’s Foreign Ministry also summoned the Chinese ambassador to complain about the consul’s post.

Although Taikachi told parliament three days after her controversial statement that she would avoid talking about specific scenarios going forward, she has refused to retract her comments.

How have tensions increased since?

The matter has deteriorated into a trade war of sorts. On November 14, China issued a no-travel advisory for Japan, an apparent attempt to target the country’s tourism sector, which welcomed some 7.5 million Chinese tourists between January and September this year. On November 15, three Chinese airlines offered refunds or free changes for flights planned on Japan-bound routes.

The Chinese Education Ministry also took aim at Japan’s education sector, warning Chinese students there or those planning to study in Japan about recent crimes against Chinese. Both China and Japan have recorded attacks against each other’s nationals in recent months that have prompted fears of xenophobia, but it is unclear if the attacks are linked.

Tensions are also rising around territorial disputes. Last Sunday, the Chinese coastguard announced it was patrolling areas in the East China Sea, in the waters around a group of uninhabited islands that both countries claim. Japan calls the islands the Senkaku Islands, while Beijing calls them the Diaoyu Islands. Japan, in response, condemned the brief “violation” of Japanese territorial waters by a fleet of four Chinese coastguard ships.

Over the last week, Chinese authorities have suspended the screening of at least two Japanese films and banned Japanese seafood.

Then, on Thursday, China postponed a three-way meeting with culture ministers from Japan and South Korea that was scheduled to be held in late November.

‘Symbol of defiance’

On November 18, diplomats from both sides met in Beijing for talks where the grievances were aired.

Senior Chinese official Liu Jinsong chose to wear a five-buttoned collarless suit associated with the rebellion of Chinese students against Japanese imperialism in 1919.

Japanese media have called the choice of the suit a “symbol of defiance.” They also point to videos and images from the meeting showing Liu with his hands in his pockets after the talks, saying the gesture is typically viewed as disrespectful in formal settings.

The Beijing meeting did not appear to ease the tensions, and there seems to be no sign of the impasse breaking: Chinese representatives asked for a retraction, but Japanese diplomats said Taikachi’s remarks were in line with Japan’s stance.

What is the history of Sino-Japanese tensions?

It’s a long and – especially for China – painful story. Imperial Japan occupied significant portions of China after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), when it gained control of Taiwan and forcefully annexed Korea. In 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Amid strong Chinese resistance, Japan occupied parts of eastern and southern China, where it created and controlled puppet governments. The Japanese Empire’s defeat in World War II in 1945 ended its expansion bid.

The Chinese Communist Party emerged victorious in 1949 in the civil war that followed with the Kuomintang, which, along with the leader Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan to set up a parallel government. But until 1972, Japan formally recognised Taiwan as “China”.

In 1972, it finally recognised the People’s Republic of China and agreed to the “one China principle”, in effect severing formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. However, Japan has maintained firm unofficial ties with Taiwan, including through trade.

Japan has also maintained a policy of so-called “strategic ambiguity” over how Tokyo would respond if China were to attack Taiwan — a policy of deliberate ambivalence, aimed at leaving Beijing and the rest of the world guessing over whether it would intervene militarily. The stance is similar to that of the United States, Taiwan’s most powerful ally.

How important is trade between China and Japan?

He Yongqian, a spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry, said at a regular news conference this week that trade relations between the two countries had been “severely damaged” by PM Takaichi’s comments.

China is Japan’s second-largest export market after the US, with Tokyo selling mainly industrial equipment, semiconductors and automobiles to Beijing. In 2024, China bought about $125bn worth of Japanese goods, according to the United Nations’ Comtrade database. South Korea, Japan’s third-largest export market, bought goods worth $46bn in 2024.

China is also a major buyer of Japan’s sea cucumbers and its top scallop buyer. Japanese firms, particularly seafood exporters, are worried about the effects of the spat on their businesses, according to reporting by Reuters.

Beijing is not as reliant on Japan’s economy, but Tokyo is China’s third-largest trading partner. China mainly exports electrical equipment, machinery, apparel and vehicles to Japan. Tokyo bought $152bn worth of goods from China in 2024, according to financial data website Trading Economics.

It’s not the first time Beijing has retaliated with trade. In 2023, China imposed a ban on all Japanese food imports after Tokyo released radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific. Beijing was against the move, although the UN atomic energy agency had deemed the discharge safe. That ban was lifted just on November 7, the same day Taikachi made the controversial comments.

In 2010, China also halted the exports of rare earth minerals to Japan for seven weeks after a Chinese fishing captain was detained near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

Islamabad, Pakistan – When the United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a United States-authored resolution that paves the way for a transitional administration and an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) in Gaza, Pakistan – which was presiding over the council – had a seemingly contradictory response.

Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, thanked the US for tabling the resolution and voted in its favour. But he also said Pakistan was not entirely satisfied with the outcome, and warned that “some critical suggestions” from Pakistan were not included in the final text.

Though the resolution promises a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood, Ahmed, in his comments to the council, said it did not spell that path out, and did not clarify the role of the UN, a proposed Board of Peace (BoP) to oversee Gaza’s governance, or the mandate of the ISF.

“Those are all crucial aspects with a bearing on the success of this endeavour. We earnestly hope that further details in coming weeks will provide the much-needed clarity on these issues,” he said.

But the country had already endorsed US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan in September – the basis for the UN resolution. And while several other Arab and Muslim countries have also cautiously supported the resolution, Pakistan, with the largest army among them, is widely expected to play a key role in the ISF.

The vote in favour of the resolution, coupled with the suggestions that Pakistan still has questions it needs answers to, represents a careful tightrope walk that Islamabad will need to navigate as it faces questions at home over possible military deployment in Gaza, say analysts.

“The US playbook is clear and has a pro-Israel tilt. Yet, we need to recognise that this is the best option that we have,” Salman Bashir, former Pakistani foreign secretary, told Al Jazeera. “After the sufferings inflicted on the people of Gaza, we did not have any option but to go along.”

Pakistan’s rising geopolitical value

In recent weeks, Pakistan’s top leaders have engaged in hectic diplomacy with key Middle Eastern partners.

Last weekend, Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited Islamabad and met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, the army chief. Munir had earlier travelled to Amman in October, as well as to Cairo in Egypt.

Pakistan has traditionally had close relations with Gulf states, and those ties have tightened amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Pakistan has long called for “Palestinian self-determination and the establishment of a sovereign, independent and contiguous State of Palestine based on pre-1967 borders with al-Quds al-Sharif [Jerusalem] as its capital”.

But in recent weeks, Pakistan – the only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons – has also emerged as a key actor in the region’s security calculations, courted by both the United States and important Arab allies.

In September, Pakistan signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) with Saudi Arabia, days after Israel had struck Doha, the Qatari capital. Then, in October, Prime Minister Sharif and Field Marshal Munir joined Trump and a bevy of other world leaders in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh for the formal signing ceremony of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Sharif lavished Trump with praise on the occasion.

By then, Trump had already described Munir as his “favourite field marshal”. Following a brief escalation with India in May, during which Pakistan said it shot down Indian jets, Munir met Trump in the Oval Office in June, an unprecedented visit for a serving Pakistani military chief who is not head of state.

In late September, Munir visited Washington again, this time with Sharif. The prime minister and army chief met Trump and promoted potential investment opportunities, including Pakistan’s rare earth minerals.

Now, Pakistan’s government is mulling its participation in the ISF. Though the government has not made any decision, senior officials have publicly commented favourably about the idea. “If Pakistan has to participate in it, then I think it will be a matter of pride for us,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on October 28. “We will be proud to do it.”

That’s easier said than done, cautioned some analysts.

Palestine is an emotive issue in Pakistan, which does not recognise Israel. The national passport explicitly states it cannot be used for travel to Israel, and any suggestion of military cooperation with Israeli forces – or even de facto recognition of Israel – remains politically fraught.

That makes the prospect of troop deployment to Gaza a highly sensitive subject for politicians and the military alike.

Government keeps cards close to chest

Officially, the government has been opaque about its position on joining the ISF.

Even while describing any participation in the force as a cause for pride, Defence Minister Asif said the government would consult parliament and other institutions before making any decision.

“The government will take a decision after going through the process, and I don’t want to preempt anything,” he said.

In a weekly press briefing earlier this month, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said the question of Pakistan’s contribution would be decided “after consultation at the highest level”.

“The decision will be taken in due course, as and when required. Certain level of leadership has stated that the decision will be taken with the advice of the government,” he said.

Al Jazeera reached out to Asif, the defence minister, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, and the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations, but received no response.

Legal, operational ambiguities

Some retired senior officers say Pakistan will not decide the matter behind closed doors.

Muhammad Saeed, a three-star general who served as Chief of General Staff until his 2023 retirement, said he expects the terms of reference and rules of engagement for any ISF deployment to be debated in public forums, including Pakistan’s National Security Council and parliament.

“This is such a sensitive topic; it has to be debated publicly, and no government can possibly keep it under wraps. So once the ISF structure becomes clear, I am certain that Pakistani decision-making will be very inclusive and the public will know about the details,” he told Al Jazeera.

Kamran Bokhari, senior director at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, DC, said the mutual defence agreement with Saudi Arabia meant that Pakistani troops in Gaza would likely be representing both countries. He, however, added that Pakistan would likely have participated in the ISF even without the Saudi pact.

Still, the lack of details about the ISF and Gaza’s governance in the UN resolution remains a stumbling block, say experts.

Several countries on the council said the resolution left key elements ambiguous, including the composition, structure and terms of reference for both the BoP and the ISF. China, which abstained, also described the text as “vague and unclear” on critical elements.

The resolution asks for the Gaza Strip to be “demilitarised” and for the “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups”, a demand that Hamas has rejected.

Hamas said the resolution failed to meet Palestinian rights and sought to impose an international trusteeship on Gaza that Palestinians and resistance factions oppose.

So far, the US has sent nearly 200 personnel, including a general, to establish a Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) near Gaza on Israeli territory. The centre will monitor humanitarian aid and act as a base from which the ISF is expected to operate.

US-based media outlet Politico reported last month that Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Indonesia – all Muslim-majority states – were among the top contenders to supply troops for the ISF.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates, which joined the Abraham Accords in 2020 and recognised Israel in Trump’s first tenure, has said it will not participate until there is clarity on the legal framework.

King Abdullah of Jordan also warned that without a clear mandate for the ISF, it would be difficult to make the plan succeed.

Costs, incentives and Pakistan’s historical role

Bokhari argued Pakistan has limited options, adding that many of its close allies are “deeply committed” to the initiative and have sought Islamabad’s participation.

“Pakistan’s economic and financial problems mean it will need to reciprocate militarily in order to secure” the goodwill of the US and Islamabad’s Gulf allies, he said. “We have to assume that the current civilian-military leadership is aware of the domestic political risks.”

Others point to Pakistan’s long experience with UN peacekeeping. As of September 2025, UN figures show Pakistan has contributed more than 2,600 personnel to UN missions, just below Indonesia’s 2,700, ranking Pakistan sixth overall.

Qamar Cheema, executive director of the Islamabad-based Sanober Institute, said Pakistan has emerged as a security stabiliser for the Middle East and has “extensive experience of providing support in conflict zones in the past”.

Pakistan currently faces security challenges on both its borders – with India to its east and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to the west. But it “may not have to cut troops from its eastern or western borders, since the number of troops [needed in Gaza] may not be that big, as various countries are also sending troops,” Cheema told Al Jazeera.

Saeed, the retired general, said Pakistan’s historic position on Palestine remained intact and that its prior peacekeeping experience meant that its troops were well-equipped to help the ISF.

“Pakistan has one of the richest experiences when it comes to both peacekeeping and peace enforcement through the UN. We have a sizeable force, with a variety of experience in maintaining peace and order,” he said.

“The hope is that we can perhaps provide help that can eliminate the violence, lead to peace, bring humanitarian aid in Gaza and implement the UN resolution,” the former general said.

Domestic political risks and the Israeli factor

Despite those arguments, many in Pakistan question the feasibility – and political acceptability – of serving alongside or coordinating with Israeli forces.

Bashir, the former foreign secretary, acknowledged the risks and said the demand that Hamas deweaponise made the ISF “a difficult mission”.

Still, he said, “realism demands that we go along with a less than perfect solution”.

Bokhari of New Lines Institute said stakeholders often sort out details “on the go” in the early stages of such missions.

“Of course, there is no way Pakistan or any other participating nation can avoid coordinating with Israel,” he said.

Saeed, however, disagreed. He said ISF would likely be a coalition in which one partner coordinates any dealings with Israeli forces, meaning Pakistani troops might not have direct contact with Israel.

“There are other countries potentially part of ISF who have relations with Israel. It is likely they will take the commanding role in ISF, and thus they will be the ones to engage with them, and not Pakistan,” he said. He added Pakistan’s involvement – if it happens – would be narrowly focused on maintaining the ceasefire and protecting Palestinian lives.

But Omar Mahmood Hayat, another retired three-star general, warned that any operational tie to Israel “will ignite domestic backlash and erode public trust”.

Hayat said Pakistan has no diplomatic ties with Israel “for principled reasons” and that blurring that line, even citing humanitarian considerations, would invite domestic confusion and controversy.

“This is not just a moral dilemma, but it is also a strategic contradiction,” he said. “It weakens our diplomatic posture.”