Finance Minister Ishaq Dar unveiled the government’s budget for 2016-17 terming it pro-business, pro-investment and pro-people. All the opposition parties however labeled it anti-development and most of the business chambers and entities also considered it anti-growth. The government set an ambitious growth target at 5.7 percent in the next fiscal year and according to the…
The American Congress has been rash in blocking the subsidized sale of eight F-16s to the Pakistan Air Force. F-16 has been the weapon systems of first choice to fight the terrorists in otherwise inhospitable and inaccessible terrain. The ability of this aircraft to deliver precision munitions have been a major under writer for employing…
In the early 1960s, visitors waiting for a boat at Keamari basin would toss a coin into the clear sea and young boys from nearby localities would dive and recover it from the bottom in no time. It was both fun and a small source of earning for the lads in less inflationary times. Those…
Lieutenant General Tajindar Shergill and Captain Amarinder Singh’s book The Monsoon war is an encyclopedic work on 1965 India-Pakistan war. It is a detailed account of operations of all phases of 1965 war from the perspectives of junior officers. Authors have used extensive Indian material as well as Pakistani sources to provide a detailed picture…
Ikram Sehgal, an articulate member of Pakistan’s strategic community, has been long time editor of the respected Defence Journal, representing the views principally of Pakistan’s military veterans. He earned his spurs as one of about twenty, by his count, prisoners of war of the 1971 conflict who made it back to Pakistan, of the forty…
IntroductionPakistan has been engaged in fighting resurgent terrorists and militants for more than a decade. Over these years, some specific anti-terrorism and counter-militancy operations have been vigorously conducted in the terror-infested tribal areas. During and/or after these operations, particular peace accords between the government and terrorists were also signed in order to bring about and…
As the power contest between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran intensifies, an important factor is Iran’s advantage in the area of asymmetric warfare, particularly with regard to Yemen and Syria. A major driver in the rise of the so-called “Shi’ite Crescent” has been Iran’s ability to spread its influence…
“The institution of diplomacy is as old as history itself. Oppenheim in his treatise of International Law has stated ‘Legation as an institution for the purpose of negotiating between different states is as old as histories whose records are full of examples of legations sent and received by the oldest nations.’ History records that in…
Turkmenistan is blessed with huge natural reservoirs and resources in shape of oil and gas and other precious metals. Moreover, its export-oriented energy policy makes it one of the ideal countries in the Central Asian countries and the world to do businesses. Its outstanding commercial diplomacy holds the secret of its high ratios of exports….
“War is uncertainty, characterized by friction, chance and disorder”. Clausewitz From 2003 to 2008, for a variety of reasons, the Pakistani state gradually lost control over the federally administered tribal areas. The reasons were more related to strategic myopia at the highest level rather than strength of the militants. It took a while before the…
