Porous borders, angry neighbours
Any general’s worst fear is to have to fight on two fronts. This is one reason our army has been reluctant to move troops away from our border with India,…
Porous borders, angry neighbours
Any general’s worst fear is to have to fight on two fronts. This is one reason our army has been reluctant to move troops away from our border with India,…
The imaginary republic of Extremistan
Every school, college and university in Pakistan is closed. The seemingly most impenetrable building in Pakistan, the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army was breached, and breached emphatically. Mosques,…
Tackling extremism
Hardly a day now goes by without some new development linked to terrorism in Pakistan. Thousands have lost their lives and millions have had to flee their homes. Even the…
Pak-US ties in 2012
A series of crises in 2011 set the tone for US-Pakistan interaction in 2012; these included Raymond Davis’ shooting of two Pakistanis and Bin Laden’s killing. However, it was the…
Spotlight
The counsel for the federation, Mr Kamal Azfar, appearing in the Supreme Court in the case of the infamous NRO, now struck down ab initio by the apex court, called…
Uncertainty
The PPP, GHQ and the Supreme Court have turned Pakistan into a country where it is now “impossible to exactly describe either the existing state or a future outcome”. We…
Strange bedfellows
The GHQ-Pentagon blow up last week was ugly. Admittedly, one had the feeling for a while that there was enough discontent in both military establishments that something would give sooner…
Further progress
Last week I had identified some steps that Pakistan had taken to promote reconciliation in Afghanistan. I had suggested that there were further measures that Pakistan should also take, urgently, since…
Caretakers
The game from here on is all about the caretakers. The four major players in the field are: the PPP, the PML-N, the Supreme Court and the Pakistan Army. The…
