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The withdrawal of US forces has special significance for South Asia in general and Pakistan in particular. This article looks at issues from different angles with a logical and prudent solution which, if implemented, would ensure peace and security in the region. The attack on World Trade Center in September 2001 prompted a bloody era of war, which engulfed both …

The peace process was still bleeding from the wounds of the Mumbai terror attacks that violation of ceasefire on the LoC has put a serious question mark on the future of the on-going peace process between the two countries. The incidents across the Line of Control (LoC) in early January have exposed the vulnerability of the so-called irreversibility of the …

Precisely, the law has not successfully transformed the extant practice of informal regime of ‘interception’ or ‘surveillance’ to formal regime. In reality, a dual formally informal mechanism has been provided, which will ultimately provide a legal cover to illegal practices. Everyone has an opinion to offer on the newly-passed law styled as the Investigation for Fair Trial Act, 2012 (IFT). …

The South Asian region has always been under the influence of extra-regional powers. The interplay of their strategic and economic interests considerably marred bilateral relations between states in South Asia, particularly Pakistan and India. The international security scenario has long been under transformation due to major shifts in political, economic and strategic interests of states. In a contemporary era, incidents …

‘Jiay Bhutto’, ‘doctrine of victimhood’, and above all ‘democracy is the best revenge’ with a theory of political rapprochement as followed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) top leadership Panch Ka Tola (the gang of five): the PPP, PML-N, PML-Q, MQM and ANP (and of course a ‘friendly opposition’) lay exposed as those at the helm of affairs stay put. With …

How did Imran Khan manage to gather such a large crowd on October 30, 2012? How did Dr Tahirul Qadri manage to gather such a large crowd on December 23, 2012? And, how did Dr Tahirul Qadri manage to keep tens of thousands for four wintry nights in the open? The mother of all questions? Islamabad’s ‘million-man march’ can be …

The situation in Pakistan is no different. We too witnessed the Athenian scene being enacted in our capital with a lot of political ferment and frenzy. On a day in 399 BC, philosopher Socrates stood before a jury of 500 of his fellow-Athenians accused of ‘refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state’ and of ‘corrupting the youth’. If …

This article aims at underscoring the matters of understanding and the issues of miscellaneous opinion and policies between Pakistan and the US over the distinctive national and international contexts that directly link the two parties’ interests and spell out causes of survival of interaction between them during crucial times of ‘pull-and-push’. The history of relations between Pakistan and the United …

The Soviet failure in Afghanistan due to Pakistan’s active support for the Afghan Jihad kept both the states locked in a state of continuous hostility, with the result that their relations were far from being normal for a long time. In the inter-state relations, politics has made national interests dominant all other considerations. The same was true about the China-U.S. …

The latest flare-up of tensions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir is a reminder of the accident-prone nature of Pakistan-India relations in a strategic environment unaltered by improvement in trade and political ties. The border hostilities witnessed last week are inherent in the unresolved status of bilateral disputes. This makes the LoC susceptible to advantage seeking by one …