The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960, though subject to increasing stresses in recent decades (and “suspended” by India in 2025), was long hailed as one of the great success stories of international water disputes. A treaty negotiated to divide the Indus rivers to conform to the new territorial boundaries of the subcontinent’s 1947 partition, the IWT’s ultimate result was to effectively create two separate river basins operating in, and helping to define, distinctive Indian and Pakistani “national spaces” of water control—and “water nationalism.” However, another effect of this approach was also to encourage increasing internal competition—and conflict—over water within each country. This article argues that the roots of this structure go back to the abstract, and environmentally disconnected, form of “nationalism” that dictated the drawing of the original 1947 partition line, and to the ways that state water policy—and the IWT itself—reflected and responded to this.

Pakistan and India were born of conflict and have endured over seventy-five years of rivalry since their birth in 1947. This has led to South Asia being one of the least integrated regions in the world, constraining its economic potential and human development. Yet the relationship has not been one of unending conflict; there have been periods of calm and even hope. Cricket, a common heritage and passion for both, has often delivered episodes of optimism, providing glimpses of what India-Pakistan cooperation could achieve were a conducive environment provided. On several occasions cricket has succeeded in uniting people of the estranged nations, allowing the nascent cultural ties that have existed for centuries to flourish. This article looks at how periods of connectivity and rupture between India and Pakistan have been reflected in the cricketing ties between the two nations and how these ties have been impacted by the wider political environment.

How do counterterrorism policies enable terrorist groups to thrive and survive? This article examines the relationship and how counterterrorism policies and political structures impact terrorist group success. While studies of terrorism have tended to separate the two phenomena, there is considerable complexity in the interactions between violent action and coercive state response. To demonstrate the complexity of these interactions, this article examines the persistence of three transnational terrorist groups from 1989 to 2022 – the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the Hizbul Mujahideen – that operate in the Kashmir region despite India’s coercive counterterrorism policies. While existing research emphasises macro-level factors in transnational terrorism, this article, based on original qualitative data, demonstrates the critical importance of granular, localised opportunities for terrorist groups to carry on. We show how these structures interact with civilian perceptions of state legitimacy and security to create nuanced patterns of support. In doing so, we challenge simplistic explanations of terrorist recruitment and resilience. The article dispels existing misconceptions about the efficacy of coercive counterterrorism to end militant groups and further suggests that softer, non-coercive approaches might not necessarily generate public sympathy. In fact, select counterterrorism policies might inadvertently legitimise violence by extremist groups to their constituency and increase sympathy in the process.

Concerns have been raised that an excess of men leads to societal violence, including violence against women, although recent evidence has challenged this view. One area that remains untested is honour killings, a type of femicide perpetrated by unrelated family members, such as intimate partners, and related family members, such as parents and siblings. Using a novel data set of media reports of honour killings from Pakistan we test whether the sex ratio is associated with femicide. To address reporting bias, we implement two case-control studies. The first compares media reports of honour killings to male suicides. The second compares honour killings perpetrated by unrelated individuals to those perpetrated by kin. We find evidence that honour killings perpetrated by unrelated individuals are higher in male-biased areas compared to those perpetrated by kin. Honour killings of women by kin therefore appear less sensitive to the sex ratio. Results align with sexual selection theory, suggesting more male competition may lead to more violence. We also find weak evidence that male-biased areas report more male suicides than honour killings. However, we caution against drawing causal conclusions due to potential confounding variables, particularly economic deprivation. This highlights the challenges of studying sensitive topics quantitatively.

The present study was designed to report the prevalence of spotted fever group Rickettsia and Anaplasma in ticks from Pakistan. To address this knowledge gap, ticks were collected from October 2019 to November 2020 from livestock hosts. Three hundred ninety ticks from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad were investigated for the presence of Rickettsia and Anaplasma. The collected ticks were subjected to molecular studies for detection and characterization of spotted fever group Rickettsia and Anaplasma in ticks from Pakistan. PCR amplification of the ompA gene was used for detection of Rickettsia and portions of the 16S rDNA gene for detection of Anaplasma. Nine species of ticks were tested. Of the 390 ticks tested, 7 (2.58%) ticks were positive for Rickettsia. Rickettsia spp. were detected in Haemaphysalis punctata, Hyalomma anatolicum, Hyalomma scupense, Rhipicephalus microplus and Rhipicephalus sanguineus. Unknown Rickettsia was detected in Hy. scupense. Fifty-seven (14.6%) ticks were also positive for Anaplasma spp. Anaplasma ovis was detected in Hy. anatolicum, Hy. scupense, Hy. excavatum, Rhipicephalus decoloratus, R. microplus and R. sanguineus. Anaplasma marginale was detected in Hy. anatolicum, Hy. scupense, R. microplus, R. decoloratus and R. sanguineus. The Anaplasma sequences obtained from this experiment were 99–100% similar to those of the documented strains. This study provides information and confirms the presence of spotted fever group Rickettsia and Anaplasma spp. in different tick species. It also highlights the need for control programs to prevent health risks. Further investigation to determine the prevalence and disease burden of these pathogens in Pakistan is necessary.

In utero exposure to income shocks has a lasting effect on child well-being. In an agricultural economy, fluctuations in rainfall directly affect household income. In this paper, we investigate the short- and long-run impact of pre-pregnancy, prenatal, and early-life exposure to fluctuations in rainfall on height for a sample of 2290 children in rural Pakistan. Given the widespread canal irrigation system prevalent in the country, we also investigate how fluctuations in river water flows affect child health. We find that fluctuations in rainfall during the pre-pregnancy period have the most lasting effects on the stature of children in the short and long run. Exposure of a mother to a 1 standard deviation reduction in rainfall during the pre-pregnancy period led her child to be 0.17 standard deviations (0.53 cm) shorter by age four. This negative impact of a pre-pregnancy rainfall shock on height persisted over time; the child continued to be 0.12 standard deviations (0.83 cm) shorter, on average, by 13 years of age. However, we find that the effect of pre-pregnancy rainfall fluctuations on children’s height is smaller in districts that have access to irrigation facilities.

Employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is an important determinant of organizational effectiveness; hence, scholars and practitioners are particularly interested in the factors, mechanisms, and conditions that promote such behaviors. Guided by the ability–motivation–opportunity framework, we draw on the social cognitive theory of moral thought and action to conceptualize a model that delineates the role of ethics-oriented human resource management (HRM) systems in promoting OCBs through the mediating role of employees’ moral attentiveness. We also refer to the job demands–resources theory to describe the moderating role of work-family balance in the indirect relationship between HRM systems and OCBs. The findings of an experiment involving 157 working adults (Study 1) and a three-wave field survey of 328 employees (Study 2) converge to support the hypothesized direct and indirect (via moral attentiveness) relationships between ethics-oriented HRM systems and OCBs as well as the first-stage moderating role of work-family balance.

Developing countries, with limited monitoring and auditing capabilities, face significant tax evasion issues. This study examines the impact of various text message combinations on promoting tax compliance, particularly in encouraging service providers to submit monthly sales tax returns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A randomised controlled trial involved 18,087 service providers and tested three types of SMS reminders. These included a basic reminder for the due date, a reciprocity message emphasising social responsibility, and a loss aversion (LA) message highlighting financial penalties and deactivation. Subsequently, service providers who didn’t file on time received one of three warning messages. These warnings included a basic alert about potential legal action, financial penalties, and deactivation, as well as a message framing continued non-compliance as an active choice (AC). Overall, the interventions did not significantly influence tax filing behaviour beyond basic reminders and warnings. However, compliance improved for early registrants with the LA reminder and AC warning, and these results were robust to multiple hypothesis testing corrections. Compliance worsened for recent registrants in all combinations except the LA reminder and AC warning. These findings suggest that targeted low-cost messages that convey vague threats can improve tax compliance among certain taxpayer groups.

Climate anxiety has a negative impact on the mental health and psychological well-being of the vulnerable population. The goal is to assess many factors that affect mental health and psychological well-being, as well as how climate change affects mental health in Pakistan’s vulnerable population. This study provides evidence-based insights into the long- and medium-term impacts of extreme weather events on mental health. To obtain information on these variables, this research uses a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional survey design with a multivariate regression model for empirical tests on a sample of parents and children with an impact on mental health from climate change anxiety. Results indicate that individuals who experience shock climate change anxiety and its effects on mental health and psychological well-being. Climate change can have detrimental effects on children’s mental health. (1) Children’s Stress Index (CSI): (2) climate change anxiety (CCA), (3) generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and (4) major depression disorder (MDD), as reported by the children with mental health outcomes. The findings of this study show that climate change has a stressful effect on mental health. The article concludes with a discussion on strategies to address the anticipated mental health issues among children due to climate change.

This article examines Mahindra & Mohammed (now Mahindra & Mahindra) and the Muhammadi Steamship Company through a microhistory of late colonial Bombay. The paper reveals companies committed to the economic unity of India shortly before the anticolonial struggle culminated in the violent and chaotic Partition of British India in August 1947. In Bombay, the center of Indian industry and not typically associated with the Partition’s dislocations, economic partition was unanticipated even by economic actors closely allied with the Muslim League. The two firms examined here highlight the understudied impact of decolonization and the Partition of the sub-continent on Indian capitalism, and suggests that postcolonial territorial realities implied an economic rearticulation that has often been overlooked.

What is a populist judge, and when do judges embrace populism? Populist judges bypass legal and procedural constraints, seek an unmediated relationship with the public, and claim to represent the public better than political elites. Judicial populism can emerge in response to institutionalized dissonance in the political system. Dissonant institutionalization facilitates contestation between state institutions and can undermine the legitimacy of political institutions. This legitimacy crisis can imbue judges with a belief in their role as representatives of the public interest. In Pakistan, the dissonance caused by unresolved differences between the civil-military bureaucracy and the elected political leadership—differences that were embedded into the constitutional framework, facilitated the rise of judicial populism. I outline the key features of judicial populism and study the dynamics surrounding the rapid expansion of populist jurisprudence between 2005 and 2019 in Pakistan, with a focus on public interest litigation that became the cornerstone of the judiciary’s populist turn. Through case analysis, archival research, and semi-structured interviews, I discuss features of the populist approach to jurisprudence and trace how dissonance within Pakistan’s political system created new opportunities for the judiciary and changed judicial role conceptions within the legal and judicial community.