With Donald Trump still engaged in review and re-orientation of US relations with various countries with the Pakistani leadership awaiting an encouraging gesture from Washington DC, the concerns, priorities and nuances of the American foreign and trade policies are becoming clear in bits and pieces, particularly in South and South West Asia, South East Asia […]
Deeply stuck in a Stalemate
Pakistan has reached a stalemate in both foreign and domestic policy decisions. It finds it difficult to recalibrate its bilateral relations with the most important regional countries, and the major powers of the world, and overcome its domestic political, economic, constitutional and security predicaments. The more the country struggles to put its house in order […]
Benazir – A Matchless Leader
We lost you 17 years ago on 27 December to terrorists and suicide bombers which you vowed to rid the country of their scourge. Were these terrorists acting alone or some dark faces of the deep state were involved in this tragic act of eliminating Bhuttos? First, they executed the senior Bhutto; second, they killed […]
Israel on Rampage – II
The wealthy Arab states were anxious before the first election of Donald Trump in the year 2017 about the reduced US role in the Middle East looking desperately for new strategic partners, and they are now concerned about the expansionism of Israel with the support of the US and the Western countries. With the exit […]
Israel on Rampage
With the plunge of Syria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon in chaos, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Shia rule in Iraq facing imminent threat of de-stabilization while Gaza is being reduced to rubble by the relentless Israel, the Arab states are individually engaged in a desperate exercise for survival. I feel a strong repulsion […]
Fall of Damascus
Should it be called the fall of Damascus, or the toppling of a decades-long ruthless autocracy, or the opening of wanton balkanization of a vanquished Muslim country by the real victors clawing away parts of it in a neo-imperial game. Iran’s road to Levant would end at the borders of Iraq; Israel has already traversed […]
No Redemption from Political Deadlock
The suppression of the PTI protests on November 26 in Islamabad has further deepened political antagonism in the country. Notwithstanding the differing claims about the causalities by the PTI and the government, the ruthlessness displayed by the security forces demonstrate the depth of the brutality. The violence was not followed by soothing actions to calm […]
The Unmaking of Pakistan – II
The misplaced priority for a strong Centre has always put the federal structure of the country at greater risk. For a quarter of a century, the federal structure was hamstrung by conflicts between the eastern and western wings over the division of financial resources and political and administrative positions. After losing the Eastern wing of […]
The Unmaking of Pakistan
The making of Pakistan is wrapped in myths purposefully weaved into the history of the struggle of the Muslims to carve out a new country in the Sub-continent. These myths have hindered us from determining the kind of state we want to have. Did we want an Islamic country with a system of governance as […]
New Challenges for CPEC
Donald Trump has staged a spectacular come back. He is going to assume the US Presidency in January 2025. His widely-predicted policies on China, trans-Atlantic alliance, wars, globalization, trade wars, and protectionism would have profound impact on the current economic and strategic international order. Pakistan would be concerned on two counts: the renewed Sino-US rivalry […]