BackgroundIn 1998 both India and Pakistan abandoned their ‘bomb in the basement’ policy and exploded multiple nuclear devices to announce their formal entry into the nuclear weapons club. Knowledgeable nuclear experts had then predicted that eventually the two would be involved in a nuclear arms race where production and integration of tactical nuclear weapons in…
Terrorists use diverse attack tactics to hit their targets across Pakistan but their reliance on targeted killings increased in 2012. The issue was directly linked to easy access to illicit weapons and according to an estimate 20 million illegal weapons are in circulation in Pakistan.1 The proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) in…
Wow, a Shaykh ul-Islam who attracts populace with his thunderous socio-political oratory and a religious doctrine! Wow, a revolution through a mass public movement supported by a Cricketer Tsunami Khan! But wait …… and let us think this through in the context of Pakistan’s checkered political history and ambiguities over the decades, its ongoing internal…
There has been talk of raising a new Counter Terrorism Force for combating the rising level of organized crime, terrorism and lawlessness in Pakistan. Let us have a look at a previous experiment. The Federal Security Force (FSF) was disbanded by the Martial Law Authorities soon after the 1977 coup. It was construed as a…
It is a sorry state of affairs that since the beginning of 2014, hardly a day has passed without a terrorist event of one type or another. Widespread incidents of violence, of all hues, in Pakistan’s urban centres signify the challenges confronting the federal and provincial governments in restoring law and order. Taliban’s trajectory is…
Our major problem is that we cannot seem to separate Counter-insurgency (CI) operations from Counter-terrorism (CT). Terrorism is more urban- based, insurgency normally operates mainly in rural areas. With great sacrifice CI has been a resounding success, a CT policy does finally exist now but it is yet to be translated into reality. Contrast the…
Uzbekistan celebrates “Constitution Day” every year on December 8. It was adopted on December 8, 1992 and recently it celebrated its 22nd Constitution day. It provided a solid foundation of building a new state and new society and formed a legal and legislative basis in building the independent democratic state. It was the first giant…
Democratic transition in Pakistan in May 2013, has opened new vistas of cooperation between the two countries. Nawaz-Obama summit in October last year and the comprehensive Joint Statement issued thereafter provided the vision and future direction for this relationship. President Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had agreed that mutual interactions should focus people centric…
IntroductionAs a young man, I wished to travel the world but with limited resources at my disposal it was not possible. Twice I made plans to visit London but both the times something happened and I could not go. In 1974 again I decided to go to London. I had a second hand car which…
No Army in the world can stand by and tolerate continuing bad or criminal governance or both. The application of the doctrine of necessity does become necessary sometimes in unambiguous circumstances of “clear and present danger” to the existence of the State, it goes wrong when those that apply it forget that their role is…
