Lessons from Quetta
Like other terrorist and militant attacks, the incumbent government has largely forgotten the recent deadly attack on the lawyer community in Quetta. It is axiomatic that the cowardly attack has…
A climate of mistrust
Pak-Afghan relations have been marred by mutual mistrust, acrimony and blame game. Under the visible tentacles of a regional power, last month Afghan President Ashraf Ghani threatened to block Pakistan’s…
Let’s not romanticise CPEC
The cult of CPEC is getting very stifling. Never before has something that is supposed to be nothing more than an economic agreement become quite so sacred. The acronym is…
Lessons not learnt
My last column, ‘Waiting for a tragedy’, that appeared on September 13 proved to be a wake-up call that went unattended till one more tragedy took its toll. The nation,…
The dream of peace
Despite spending billions of dollars, lasting and meaningful peace is still a distant dream in war-torn Afghanistan. By capitalising on Afghanistan’s precarious security situation, Daesh has increased its tentacles in…
In unexpected twist, Assad ally may be Lebanon’s next president
Lebanon's political crisis has taken a dramatic turn with the possibility that a friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could become president in a power-sharing deal aimed at breathing life…
The demon we created
It took yet another militant attack across the border and increasing pressure from outside powers for us to finally act against Masood Azhar and his militant network — although one…
Russian jet crash puts Sharm resort staff on ‘unpaid leave’
The Russian plane crash in Egypt has forced hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh to send dozens of staff on "unpaid leave" as tourist numbers plunge, with tens of thousands of jobs…
The new ‘war on terror’
The wave of atrocities over the last two weeks — from the downing of a Russian passenger aircraft to a bloodbath in Beirut and now the massacre in Paris —…
State and non-state actors
‘We will not allow our soil to be used against any other country for terrorism.’ This oft-repeated cliché in our official statements has almost become a national embarrassment. A solemn…
