“China and Pakistan have shaped a paradigm of neighbour-to-neighbour relations. Their time-tested friendship, described by some as “higher than the mountains and deeper than the oceans,” is not just a bunch of empty words,” a commentary in the state-run Xinhua news agency said as Premier Li Keqiang began his short visit to Pakistan on Wednesday,…
Other than the “electables” of the feudal kind, every Province has its own ethnic, racial and sectarian electoral dynamics, our extremely defective “first past the post” system force-multiplies the problems of governance. Out of the nearly 35 million cast in 2008 (out of nearly 85 million) PPP got a little more than 10 million i.e….
Notwithstanding PPP and ANP desperately trying to avoid impending rout by delaying the electoral process, approximately 86 million people will be eligible to decide the country’s fate on Saturday May 11, 2013. Kayani put to rest widespread doubts by reiterating the army’s commitment supporting the election schedule, 70000 troops fanning out to deploy in sensitive…
More than 150 lost their lives in the run-up to the elections and on election day itself, scores were injured. Despite fear and intimidation, by lining up to vote the populace signalled their readiness to be stakeholders in the destiny of the nation and willing to confront the challenges. PTI’s Chairman Imran Khan made an…
As opposed to the 15th of March (the Roman “Ides of March”), the entire month of March seems linked with Pakistan’s destiny. March 23 marks the 1940 Resolution for the muslims of South Asia aspiring for a separate homeland, the fateful Army action in Dhaka in 1971 started late evening of March 25. By early…
The phrase “may you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse heaped on an enemy. Frederic Coudert quotes an unknown British diplomat in 1936, “no age has been fraught with more insecurity than our present time”, three years later the Second World War ravaged the world between 1939 and 1945. We in Pakistan have…
The US agenda with Pakistan pre-9/11 was, in order of priority viz (1) nuclear non-proliferation (2) terrorism and (3) drugs, with the Taliban government in Afghanistan figuring prominently in the last two issues. The reason for our nuclear assets and the means to deliver them is not complicated, we live in a very tough neighbourhood…
Dear Readers,Not too long ago, former President Pervez Musharraf was called ‘America’s most important ally in the war on terrorism’ by the Bush administration. Since then many things have changed and for Musharraf it has been downhill all the way after his return to Pakistan from self exile. By ignoring pleas and warnings by his…
The Nov 26, 2011 Salala incident when 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed on an attack by US Apache helicopters, an AC-130 gunship and two F- I5E fighter aircraft on two Pakistani border outposts capped a hard six months after Osama Bin Laden was disposed off in a US raid on his secret hideaway in Abbottabad…
Pakistan has gone through a period of trial and tribulation for the last fifteen years or so, It was expected that the exit of Gen Pervez Musharraf would have ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity and the democracy that dawned would herald in a new beginning but that dream has remained elusive,…
