International Law | Human Rights & Crim Justice | Director @rsilpak | Host, Legally Speaking @dawn_news | Eisenhower Fellow @EF_Fellows | @soas, @univienna
Islamabad, Pakistan
Joined February 2014
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Everything you need to know about the Strait of Hormuz! Iran’s weapons, tactics and overall strategy to control and choke the Strait. I also discuss the lawfullness of the ‘Tehran Tollbooth’ and what it means for the rest of the world.
youtu.be/0PgYpuPliiw?si=HFGM…
On Legally Speaking, Rida Hosain and I unpack the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling in Usman Shahid & Aqeel Abbas v. Nadia Sarwar. What it means for women at work, the Supreme Court safeguards it overrules, and an FCC unshackled by SC precedent.
youtu.be/cVtecnaH25c?si=JRTT…
Oves Anwar retweeted
In this episode of Legally Speaking, @ovesanwar speaks with @ZohaWaseem about Pakistan’s policing system, “super cops,” encounter killings, procedural informality and the colonial roots of modern policing.
youtu.be/a_2FOoQvIQ4
This week on Legally Speaking, I sat down with @ZohaWaseem, author of Insecure Guardians. We had a candid conversation about why police reform keeps failing, encounter killings, corruption, and why we love our 'super cops' in Pakistan.
youtu.be/a_2FOoQvIQ4?si=uVmV…
Oves Anwar retweeted
The most immoral army.
The army of the deranged ones. Committing the monstrosity of the century.
Every day, new brushes of horror.
Oves Anwar retweeted
Pakistan was home to ancient civilisations, yes. But they didn’t live here in an unbroken chain, nor is the place some millennia-old nation-state. No nation-state is.
The entire problem with our history is this pull to extremes: an ahistorical science experiment according to the left (it wasn’t); an ageless promised land per the right (it wasn’t); or an unbroken civilisational chain (it wasn’t).
Pakistan was founded by Muslim modernists amid the end of a world war and the breakup of empire. It was a political project, with freedom for a religious minority at its core. It also had a remarkable geographic coherence, stretching back centuries, and was heir to the one of the world’s largest ancient civilisations.
There is no need to distort a genuinely rich history, with such interesting paradoxes, this way.
Pakistan is a civilizational state whose historical roots extend more than nine millennia.
Mehrgarh (c. 7000–2500 BCE), Rehman Dheri (c. 4000–3300 BCE), Harappa (from c. 3300 BCE), and Mohenjo-daro (c. 2500–1900 BCE). In Gilgit-Baltistan, over 50,000 petroglyphs and some 5,000 inscriptions range from prehistoric carvings (c. 5000–1000 BCE) into the historic period.
14th August 1947 marked the political rebirth of this ancient nation.
Oves Anwar retweeted
The view from there: SNL UK's "Weekend Update" tackles Macklemore's removal from Ed Sheeran's U.S. tour.
Read this and then read it again. The most succinct legal argument for why what Israel has done in Gaza is a genocide and not merely war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Regarding the #Naza film debate on war crimes vs genocide, the debate has been underway for a while. Based on the documentary makers research, I published this in July 2025 link.springer.com/article/10… People are beginning to understand the illusion of the war/genocide distinction.
Oves Anwar retweeted
All of Ed Sheeran’s openers have now withdrawn from the Looper Tour. Please realize how big this is. This is what unity looks like. Billionaires are terrified of people realizing how strong they can be when we come together for a cause. Continue speaking out. Support the new artists that are deciding to put their careers at risk to take this stance.
Oves Anwar retweeted
Yesterday I sat down with @ovesanwar for a conversation on the Makkah Agreement.
We discuss what it means for American engagement in the region, the significance of the commitment to collective defense, the future of regional security, as well as Pakistan's role and agency in shaping the direction of this alliance.
Link to podcast: youtu.be/7K37aW0a8MU?si=59Ub…
@Strafasia_PK @adilsultan @f_aider @nuverah_a @dawnnewsenglish
Oves Anwar retweeted
Is the Makkah Defence Alliance Pakistan's middle-power moment — or just political signaling?
Our Director of Strategic Affairs, @Aiza_Azam joins host @ovesanwar on @Dawn_News' Legally Speaking to unpack the newly signed Makkah Defence Alliance between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — and what it actually means for regional security architecture.
youtu.be/7K37aW0a8MU?si=3yin…
Oves Anwar retweeted
In the past months I've been on a mission to make Pakistan's public data more useable through building open source databases and visualisations.
Today I'm launching Adaad (اعداد), a monthly data journal on Pakistan. Adaad is where those datasets become arguments and insights.
Everything here is made to be taken. The prose, the charts and the cleaned datasets are published under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY 4.0). Translate a piece for an Urdu newspaper. Rebuild a chart for a classroom. Rerun the analysis and publish your disagreement. All we ask is a line of credit and a link to the source.
Adaad also publishes contributors. If you have a question the data can answer — or data that raises a question — pitch it to [email protected]. For more details on what is required for a pitch, please see the about section.
Happy Independence Day — the struggle continues!
adaad.org/
I love how Mehdi Hasan routinely demolishes @benshapiro with facts, logic and common sense.
So @benshapiro put out a video asking me to explain why his new movie is Islamophobic, challenged me to name more than 5 movies with Muslim villains, & called me a "terror-hugger" & "spokesperson for Qatar."
Here's my response to Shapiro's gaslighting, with lots of receipts:
Oves Anwar retweeted
How PECA Gives Pakistan’s PTA Power Over the Internet
#pakistan #pta #peca #freespeech #censorship #socialmedia #internetfreedom #digitalrights
@ovesanwar & @Hassan_A_Niazi
Oves Anwar retweeted
When does legal process become punishment?
@ovesanwar and @Hassan_A_Niazi unpack sedition, PECA, misinformation, platform bans, surveillance and the limits on free expression in Pakistan
youtu.be/WOmWyK9Z1PU?si=IUOM…
Delighted to join @MahamNaweed, @SaadiaAbbasii, and @NidaUsmanCh for this important discussion on Water Security in Armed Conflicts. Thank you to @WomenInLawPk for having me be part of their great series.
One of the most engaging sessions of the series has been this one on water security in times of armed conflict.
@ovesanwar and Dr Saadia were exceptional.
Catch the conversation here 👇
youtu.be/HT6-5O1e6GY?si=3owg…
#WaterAndGovernance #WomenInLaw
Oves Anwar retweeted
One of the most engaging sessions of the series has been this one on water security in times of armed conflict.
@ovesanwar and Dr Saadia were exceptional.
Catch the conversation here 👇
youtu.be/HT6-5O1e6GY?si=3owg…
#WaterAndGovernance #WomenInLaw
Oves Anwar retweeted
Should tax revenue grow as the economy grows? The intuitive answer is yes.
The complete answer is: it depends, on what the growth is made of, who captures it, and how the economy is measured.
A thread on what the tax-to-GDP ratio actually tells us, and what it doesn't - a long 🧵
Oves Anwar retweeted
Session 4 - Water & Governance takes a deep dive into water security in times of armed conflict.
On 30 July 2026 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm | Online on Zoom.
Joining us as speakers are Dr #SaadiaZahoor and Muhammad @ovesanwar.
Oves Anwar retweeted
In this @Strafasia_PK
Podcast I explain why US-KSA nuclear cooperation agreement could undermine global nonproliferation norms and trigger a new nuclear race in the region.
youtu.be/SfUqL0pOHyg?si=IUTR…
