Dr Qaisar Rashid

On July 21, the general elections took place for the unicameral assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the part of Kashmir that is with Pakistan. The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), which set foot in the AJK recently in 2011, swept the elections by winning 31 out of 41 (29 local plus 12 Pakistan-based […]

On July 15, a botched attempt to stage a military coup in Turkey to oust the elected government of President Tayyip Erdogan dejected and disgruntled the touts of a military coup in Pakistan. Some Pakistanis claim that they watched on TV a Sheikh Rasheed of Turkish version sitting on a tank heading for parliament in […]

If any situation appears to give even a delusion of the possibility of a political discord between any two major countries, the first words Pakistani intelligentsia — ranging from retired military generals participating in TV talk shows to the aspiring candidates for passing the examination of central superior services — utter are the “Cold War.” […]

The limitation with the past is that it cannot be reconstructed but the plasticity with the future is that it can be shaped up. This is true in the case of the emerging ties between Pakistan and the Russian Federation (or Russia). The generation that witnessed or got embroiled in the conflict — which was […]

On June 23, through a referendum, about 52 percent of the British voted in support of the exit of Britain, called Brexit, from the European Union (EU). In 1973, Britain joined the precursor of the EU, the European Economic Community, and the decision was reinforced through a countrywide referendum held in 1975 in which 66 […]

In the wake of recent developments on the foreign policy front, there has surfaced loads of criticism on the absence of a full-time foreign minister of Pakistan, and on residing the powers of foreign minister in the incumbent Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif. Perceivably, it may not be that critics are the clever clogs around, […]

In 2016, the major foreign policy challenge Pakistan is beset with is reduction in its conceptual size, both regionally and internationally. The challenge is emanating from certain grievances that can be divided into three parts. The first part is against India, the second part against the US and the third part against the world. Against […]

May 15 this year altered the nuclear balance between two nuclear rivals, Pakistan and India, in South Asia. India successfully tested its anti-ballistic missile defence system — an Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile — to destroy an incoming hostile intercontinental ballistic missile in mid-air at the altitude below 100 kilometres within the earth’s atmosphere. […]

  Relations between Pakistan and the US are no doubt multilayered. Indicators are ubiquitous testifying that Pak-US relations have not only reduced to be domain specific –civilian and military — but also that Pak-US relations in military or defence domain are at low ebb. In June 2014, when Pakistan army launched the operation Zarb-e-Azb in […]

Some turn of events is intriguing. India’s testing of its nuclear weapon in 1974 prompted the birth of an organisation, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), in 1975. Just to demonstrate how the effect can embrace the cause, the NSG is now about to include India into its fold. Nevertheless, this expected merger is neither fortuitous […]