President Biden’s initiatives are focussed mainly on four of our immediate neighbours: China, Afghanistan, Iran and India. India, as the strategic partner of the US will be acting as the proxy to his designs. These developments are indicative of a significant impact on Pakistan’s ...

What an irony of social justice that powers such as Russia, the US, NATO and Pakistan, who tasted defeat at the hands of the Taliban at one time or the other, have made the declaration after the Moscow conference, supporting Biden’s’ “moon-shot” Afghan Strategy. The Taliban ...

The killing of Iranian Nuclear Scientist Mohsin Fakhrizadeh is not about Iranian Nukes, because “our enemies are against the basis of our Islamic System, and they will never cease their enmity”— Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini. This is the ‘fundamental truth’ that I would ...

General Qasim Solemani of Iran was assassinated after he, and Iran, was blamed for the death of many American soldiers. Soon after, American and Israeli forces deployed to punish Iran. Instead of direct confrontation, Iran preferred a ‘strategy of deterrence’. According to this, ...

Qasim Suleimani was the top military leader of Iran, playing active role in the Middle East region, as well as Afghanistan. In fact, he was described as the “single most powerful operative in the Middle East today.” According to American intelligence, Suleimani was planning large scale ...

What happened during the last few months was ‘a crisis period’ for the state institutions, drifting in a state of helplessness to handle an ordinary matter of the state. Luckily it was the unexpected intervention by the “marginalized right” that saved the system from being ...

Imran Khan introduced “Dharna” in 2014, to bring about regime change. The same now has recoiled back on him, knocking at his doors with greater intensity. The Religious Right under Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) having remained a marginalized political ...

What is happening in both Kashmir and Assam is an attempt to change the demographics in favour of Hindus. Kashmiris fear the government’s real plan in wiping out their autonomy is to pave the way to resettle large number of Hindu Indians in Kashmir and end its status as the only ...

In dealing with the peaceful freedom movement of the people of Kashmir, of the Indian occupied territory, India appears to have lost their pride in their high military traditions and respect for human dignity. The brutalities being committed on the unarmed protestors by an armed might of over half ...

The three week Dharna by Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TL) at Faizabad, on Islamabad Expressway has ended peacefully, but leaves behind many questions to be answered, particularly the role of the State Institutions – the Government, Judiciary and the Army. Tehreek-e-Insaaf Dharna and the agitation ...

Of the several activities of our national life that have bearing on national security, two aspects, i.e., Defence and the Psycho-social, enjoy the status of National Power. These will be discussed briefly to identify the threat to our National Security Power Matrix, caused by the nexus: America and ...

Pakistan needs to develop a well-thought-out, cool and calculated response to US President Trump’s Strategy on Afghanistan, which is a vague plan, and cannot be called a strategy. The fact is that Trump is on the back foot and on the wrong side of history. He doesn’t have to be pushed ...

The Afghan War of Liberation has twice changed its course in a short period of three decades. In 1987, it was the ‘stinger missiles’, which forced the Soviets to withdraw and now it is the “suicide bombers”, which have forced the Americans to change course in ...

The Supreme Court of Pakistan formed the JIT, comprising officers drawn from government institutions for digging political dirt related to their elected Prime Minister. And as the investigations started, the opposition political parties supported by the media, launched an unabashed trial of the ...

The land mark judgment has been given by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 20th April 2017, which is discrete enough as “not to send wrong signal” so that both, the petitioner and the respondents are celebrating with political naivety. In passing this judgment the rule of law has been ...

While talking to PM Nawaz Sharif, President Trump complemented him with the words “He is a terrific guy” and now uses the same words for the Egyptian Dictator, General Abul Fateh Al-Sisi. These are symbolic words with deep meaning. General Al-Sisi, encouraged by America and Arab friends ...

Trump is an interesting personality, frank, outspoken with an impolite mannerism. He now is the President of the United States of America, elected after a tough election campaign where he exposed his plans, his thought perceptions and almost all the facets of his personality, without inhibitions. ...

Pakistan appears to be at war with itself, as a result of a terrible mindset causing deep divisions in the social order. As early as 1958, when the Khans of Kalat protested for their political rights, it was taken as revolt and the Army was let loose on them. Such actions have been repeated five ...

Pakistan is passing through very turbulent times, demanding from our new military leadership deep reflection, to evolve policies and plans to face the challenges. The change of command has taken place in a routine manner. The outgoing COAS gave full advantage to the incoming COAS to select and ...

Regime change through undemocratic means is nothing new for Pakistan. It has happened four times in the past, through the manipulations of the nexus, called Four A’s – America, Army, Adliah, Allies (political opportunists). The present day political agitation against the sitting ...

Our ambassador at the United Nations – Maliha Lodhi has termed the Kashmir issue as “Mission Kashmir” expressing thoughts balanced in contrast to the promises made by late PM Nehru: “We stand committed to the world to facilitate the right of self-determination to the people ...

The Russian President while talking to our President at Tashkent recently, said “we are all Muslims” meaning thereby that, we all have a common “tormentor” who, during the last three decades, has destroyed more than half a dozen Muslim countries, killing over two million of ...

The coup makers attempted to stem the tide of change taking place in Turkey, under the democratic order, but failed, unlike the earlier four attempts made in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997, which succeeded. The attempted coup took place because the military considers itself the ‘guarantor of the ...

Three years back the government decided to “beg and borrow”, to correct the economy and save the country from going into default. They did succeed in achieving the primary objective but this simple answer to the complex issue has created myriad problems as one can judge from the ...

Despite the Saudi snub, that they don’t need Pakistani mediation, Pakistan has taken a bold initiative to defuse the Saudi-Iranian tension. It is a step in the right direction, because Pakistan in its own right enjoys perfect sectarian harmony, despite so many induced sectarian riots and ...

The dispute between the two strands of Islam has existed for the last fourteen hundred years, yet they have learnt to live peacefully with traditional grace and there is no fear that the present dispute “will grow something like the murderous religious wars of Catholics and Protestants in the ...

There is a design behind Modi’s unscheduled visit to Jaati Umra, (not to Pakistan) on 25th December 2015, because his image as a hard-line nationalist leader, drawing fervour from the concept of Hindutva of his followers, is in conflict with secular India thinking. This has caused growing ...

A few months back, Dr. Ikram Azam, reminded me of the book “Pakistan – The Heart of Asia”, by late Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. The author gave his vision of Pakistan of the future, its geo-strategic importance and the linkages it could create with immediate neighbors and ...

Russian military intervention in Syria is a deliberate act, based on years of planning. Putin solved domestic problems; re-juvinated the armed forces; ensured security of the “Near abroad” and reached out to Afghanistan to eliminate the terror threat. The primary objective was, to ...

Kunduz is a turning point of the conflict between the two opposing forces – the Americans and the Taliban. The Americans having failed to achieve the objectives of war, have retreated, leaving behind a residual force of about 12,000, operating from five air bases in support of the Kabul ...