Strategic Depth on September 23, 2021In a political tug-of-war like that in vogue in Pakistan, one may concede if Prime Minister Imran Khan resorts to name-calling opposition leaders or choosing adjectives to discredit them. But when he speaks about American and other foreign leaders, he must google the meaning of his every word. “Ignorant,” “absolutely clueless” and “in a state […]
The Bear Trap on September 16, 2021Three world powers have tested their muscle in Afghanistan. Pakistan, it appears, is flexing its muscle to be the fourth. While the latest two took 20 years to turn the country into a “graveyard of empires,” the success or failure of the fourth will depend upon its economic, political and military might. Both Afghan and […]
Pak-India Overtures to Taliban on September 9, 2021Just days before the much-hyped visit of ISI chief, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, to Kabul on Saturday, Indian Ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, met Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai, the deputy chief of Taliban’s Political Office, in Doha “at the request of the latter.” Stanekzai’s meeting with the Indian envoy was described as the Taliban’s first-ever […]
Islamic Credence of Taliban Rule on September 1, 2021The willful ascension of Taliban to power and their unilateral declaration of Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan has posed genuine questions about legitimacy of the group’s ideology and activities. Answering these questions is desirable as the exclusionist policies of this inflexible militia not only look bizarre to non-Muslims but even many among the Muslims would resist […]
Afghanistan: Sanity in Surrender on August 27, 2021When Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF) surrendered to Taliban unit after unit, people and media viewed it with contempt; describing it as an act of cowardice. But now when the dust of the Taliban’s rampaging victory is subsiding, the army’s refusal to fight back appears rather saner as it stopped Afghanistan from sliding […]
Afghanistan and the Second Great Game on June 13, 2021When US President Joe Biden announced in April of this year that he would be pulling out all remaining US troops from Afghanistan by the very beginning of July — the White House administration described it as a shift in “the US global focus from counterinsurgency campaign to current priorities.” That spoke volumes about the […]
Mullah Mansurs killing: the Iranian link? on May 24, 2016While international and regional news sources are prominently hinting at Balochistan and Pakistan factor in the killing of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, the chief of the Afghan Taliban, none of them have noticed a fact. That Mansoor — if his killing is confirmed — was killed while travelling from Iran, and on his way to […]
Civil society and NGOs on May 19, 2016A viable theme of political science and a plausible institution of the socio-political realm for the last several centuries, civil society denotes a stage in human evolution in which all civic institutions — right from family to the highly organised social and even religious groups — work in tandem for collective wellbeing of society on […]