During the Cold War, dance emerged as an important instrument of soft power. In pursuit of cultural diplomacy, choreographers who settled in Pakistan after Partition repurposed South Asian dance traditions shaped by 1930s revivalism in colonial India while also incorporating socialist aesthetics through Sino–Pakistani cultural exchanges. Moving beyond hybridity discourse, this article proposes a new approach to studying South Asian dance by extending Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia to embodied performance. Through archaeological, Islamic, regional, and socialist registers, Pakistan’s National Song and Dance Ensemble’s formative choreographies—Sons of the River, Mohenjodaro Dance, and Heer–Ranjha—produced internationally legible narratives of Pakistan’s cultural distinctiveness.

This article challenges the image of Cold War Pakistan as a passive client state, arguing instead that Pakistan’s early international history was shaped by friction between a pro-Western elite and a domestic polity animated by anti-imperial solidarity, socialism, and Muslim internationalism. Examining the 1955 Bandung Conference, the 1955 Baghdad Pact, and the 1956 Suez Crisis, the article shows how domestic contestation shaped Pakistan’s foreign policy, introducing the concept of agency-in-effect to argue that polities lacking formal diplomatic power can influence states and, through that influence, help shape world events. These social forces, preconditioned by Bandung and the Baghdad Pact, erupted during the Suez Crisis, provoking a domestic legitimacy crisis and contributing to broader anti-imperial struggles that rendered European colonialism untenable. Together, these events reconceptualize world order from below, revealing the contested role of Pakistan’s domestic polity in the transition from British-French colonialism to American hegemony in West Asia during decolonization.

Cosmopolitanism is most widely understood as a political position that, based on a shared status of citizens of the world (kosmopolitês), all human beings are equal. Populism and cosmopolitanism are typically framed in opposition to one another. However, such accounts overlook a crucial dimension: how supporters of populists engage with cosmopolitan discourses themselves. This article examines how supporters of Islamic populist movements in Turkey and Pakistan engage with the idea of cosmopolitanism. Drawing on 105 qualitative interviews with supporters of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), we argue that Islamic populism does not simply reject cosmopolitan ideals. Instead, supporters articulate a form of conditional, hierarchical cosmopolitanism, in which diversity and pluralism are rhetorically embraced but practically constrained by Sunni Muslim moral and political supremacy. This analysis contributes to both populism and cosmopolitanism studies by demonstrating that populist movements can reconfigure cosmopolitan discourses within exclusionary religious-nationalist frameworks. Islamic populism thus presents not a wholesale rejection of cosmopolitanism, but its selective appropriation and redefinition to justify moral and political hierarchies. Populism scholarship needs to reconsider the framing of populism and cosmopolitanism as inherently antagonistic.

Perinatal mental health conditions are prevalent in low- and middle-income countries but poorly integrated into maternal care. In resource-constrained systems, research participation may substitute for absent services, raising ethical and structural questions about boundaries between research and care. This qualitative descriptive interpretive study, conducted in a tertiary public hospital in Pakistan within a biomarker-based longitudinal study of perinatal anxiety and depression, interviewed 19 participants: 12 enrolled mothers, 4 consultant gynecologists, and 3 researchers. Data were analyzed in Urdu using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: research as substitute care; trust, respect and interactional ethics; knowledge, awareness and reframing maternal health; and family power, structural inequality and limits of short-term intervention. Mothers described participation as providing investigations, information and respectful support rarely available in routine care. Trust developed through explanation, accompaniment and validation, though economic precarity and family-mediated decisions created ethical ambiguities. Participation increased awareness of maternal mental health and nutrition. Clinicians and researchers noted immediate benefits but could not address gender inequality, financial constraints or service gaps. Thus, perinatal mental health research in resource-constrained settings may function as provisional care rather than neutral data collection. Ethical research must engage systemic absences and ensure sustainability, responsible exit and integration into routine services.

The Franklin Book Program (FBP), established in May 1952 by Datus C. Smith Jr., former director of Princeton University Press, was a non-profit initiative with international reach. This article examines its operations in Pakistan to reassess the workings and limits of Cold War cultural diplomacy through print. Drawing on archival correspondence between Franklin’s New York headquarters and its Lahore office, alongside its Urdu-language publications, it argues that the program functioned as a fragile infrastructure shaped by local actors and shifting political conditions. It further situates Urdu publishing within debates over language and citizenship, particularly amid heightened scrutiny during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, to show how translation and circulation operated as sites of negotiation.

Humanitarian settings in Pakistan face major gaps in mental health service delivery, with limited specialist resources and a high burden of untreated conditions. Though the World Health Organization’s mhGAP-Humanitarian Intervention Guide aims to strengthen the capacity of primary care physicians to identify and manage common mental health conditions, the evidence for multidimensional training outcomes remains limited. This study evaluated the effectiveness of mhGAP-HIG training outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, attitudes and confidence among physicians across different humanitarian contexts in Pakistan. As part of implementing an evidence-based digital MHPSS service model, seven mhGAP-HIG workshops were held across two provinces and a federal area. We conducted a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods evaluation where a total of 149 physicians completed standardized assessments of knowledge (mhGAP-HIG), therapeutic skills (ENhancing Assessment of Common Therapeutic Factors), attitudes (Mental Illness: Clinician’s Attitudes Scale-v4) and confidence, before and after the training. Paired sample t-tests and ANCOVA were used to assess within-group and between-group changes, respectively. Quantitative feedback and qualitative reflections were also evaluated. We found significant improvements across the domains of knowledge, skills, confidence and a modest improvement in attitude. The participants from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa showed greater gains in knowledge, while participants from Baltistan showed greater gains in skills, as compared to other provinces. Participants expressed a high level of satisfaction, reporting improvements in knowledge, confidence and ability to identify and manage common mental health conditions. Systematic efforts to adapt and implement mhGAP-HIG may lead to significant improvements across multidimensional competencies of physicians.

Adolescent marriage and early childbearing remain common in rural Pakistan, yet few interventions support young couples transitioning into parenthood. This study explores the perceived impact and implementation of preparing for parenthood (PPP), a life skills intervention designed for married adolescents and their families. A qualitative design explored participants’ and delivery agents’ experiences of PPP. Data were collected through 12 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions with married adolescent women, spouses, family members and programme trainers. Thematic analysis was used. PPP was perceived as relevant, acceptable and empowering. Participants reported improved core life skills; communication, emotional regulation, problem-solving and decision-making that enhanced their confidence and preparedness for parenting. Home-based delivery by trusted female trainers and recruitment via community health workers supported engagement in mobility-restrictive, patriarchal settings. Challenges included limited male participation, family gatekeeping and the burden of domestic work. Participants suggested adaptations such as mobile content, male facilitators and media-based delivery to overcome these barriers. This study highlights the value of life skills interventions in equipping married adolescent women with socioemotional competencies necessary for effective parenting. Home-based, culturally grounded models paired with flexible, gender-sensitive approaches can foster empowerment and improve outcomes in low-resource, gender-restrictive settings.

Climate-related worry is increasingly recognized as a mental health concern and a potential correlate of pro-environmental behavior (PEB). However, little is known about these associations in the Global South or the potential role of mindfulness. This crosssectional study examined relationships among climate change anxiety, psychological distress, mindfulness, and PEB in 340 university students (aged 19–25 years) from Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Data were collected between January and June 2024 using validated measures of climate change anxiety (Climate Change Anxiety Scale), psychological distress (DASS-21), dispositional mindfulness (MAAS), and PEB. Analyses included bivariate correlations, block-wise linear regression, and mediation models (PROCESS Model 4; 5,000 bootstrap resamples). Climate change anxiety was positively correlated with psychological distress (r = .47, p < .001) and indirectly associated with lower PEB through distress (ab = −.09, 95% CI [−.15, −.04]). Regression analyses showed that mindfulness was positively associated with PEB (β = .27, p < .001), whereas distress (β = −.22, p = .002) and climate change anxiety (β = −.18, p = .018) were negatively associated with PEB. Mindfulness was indirectly associated with higher PEB through lower distress (ab = .11, 95% CI [.05, .19]) and lower climate change anxiety (ab = .08, 95% CI [.02, .15]), while also showing a direct positive association with PEB. These findings highlight mindfulness as a relevant factor for understanding climate-related distress and environmental engagement among young adults.

The 2022 and 2025 floods in Pakistan forced more than 33 million people to flee from their homes, destroyed medical facilities across a large portion of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan, and revealed major deficiencies in government management, healthcare systems, environmental protection, and climate preparedness. Pakistan emits <1% of worldwide greenhouse gases, yet remains among the most climate-sensitive nations, reflecting global inequities in climate impact. Floods destroyed basic health determinants, thus contributing to infectious disease epidemics, malnutrition, and mental health problems. To evaluate the short- and long-term flood impacts, this article applies the Disaster Management Cycle, along with the One Health, Planetary Health, and Doughnut Economy frameworks. The framework demonstrates the impact of floods on the health and healthcare system while simultaneously eroding the ecosystem and making the population more susceptible. The article identifies priorities for climate-adaptive health care infrastructure, environmental recovery, equity-centered disaster preparedness, and integration of One Health principles into medical education.