Droning Mullah Fazlullah
In Pakistan, anger has greeted the killing of Afghan Taliban head, Mullah Mansour, by an American drone on Pakistani territory. When senior US officials visited army chief Gen Raheel Sharif…
The return of Fazlullah
Enter Mullah Fazlullah. His choice as the new head of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has significance that must be seriously examined. Unlike Baitullah and Hakeemullah, his droned predecessors, he is not…
Fazlullah`s ascent
The ascendancy of Mullah Fazlullah as the chief of the banned militant outfit Tehreek-iTaliban Pakistan (TTP) has raised several questions. The death of Hakeemullah Mehsud in a drone strike on…
Dropped chances
WE have been approaching polio wrong all along. It is not just a public health, water, and sanitation problem. Above all else, it is a political economy and geostrategic challenge.…
Balochistan: the foreign hand?
WITH the present uptick of attacks on security forces, we are back to a familiar routine. Between when a terrorist incident occurs and blame is assigned, the separation is no…
Perversion of cultural space
A SYMBIOTIC relationship exists between what we actually see around us and the way life is culturally reproduced. This interdependence — of life and its representation — not only shapes…
Regional militant sanctuaries
THE dreaded militant outfit that once held sway over Pakistan’s former Fata may have been driven out from its stronghold and splintered, but its sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan…
Changing strategies
CAN we attribute the apparent decline in terrorism in 2020 to the erosion of extremist ideologies or to the militants’ physical and territorial losses? Successful intelligence-based operations have either eliminated…
Convergence on Afghanistan
Two days after CoAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa returned from a daylong visit to Kabul on June 11, 2018, during which he met the Afghan and US military leadership, Mullah…
Pakistan ‘fatigue’
The US-Pakistan relationship, alternating approximately in 10 years cycles since 1971, has had us going from being the "cornerstone" of the US foreign policy to being its "gravestone". Do the…
