Saman Zulfqar

South Asia’s regional security environment is in a flux mainly due to deteriorated relations between India and Pakistan and partly due to the security situation in Afghanistan. New momentum in Kashmiri freedom struggle, the arrest of an Indian spy in Pakistan, violation of Pakistan’s maritime boundary, claims of surgical strikes, unprovoked aggression on LOC and […]

It is reported that the Afghan government and Taliban representatives held secret talks in Qatar to resume the dialogue process to end the protracted war in Afghanistan. The first round of recent talks was held in September while the second round of talks was held in early October in the presence of a US representative. […]

Recently, there have been events regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the first significant one being the CPEC Summit and Expo to enhance awareness about its scope, timeframe and investments. Another equally important event was the two-day conference in Gilgit. The conference titled as “CPEC: Harbinger of Prosperity” was also an effort to make people […]

Finally, Syrian opposition agreed to hold a temporary two week truce to test the seriousness of the Syrian government’s commitment to Russian-US plan to end fighting. Last week, the US and the Russia both decided to make a deal possible to end the hostilities between the Syrian government and the fighting groups excluding the Islamic […]

Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, during a consultative meeting, decided to form a steering committee to oversee the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC). The committee will be headed by the PM while all four chief ministers, along with some key federal ministers, will be members of the committee that will meet every three months […]

Leaders from four countries attended the groundbreaking ceremony ofthe TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline project to connect energy rich Central Asia with energy deficit South Asia via a gas pipeline in December 2015. TAPI,the long stalled project,was initially designed to supply gas to Pakistan through Afghanistan but, in April 2008, India also joined the project. Four […]

Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari recently called upon the Indian government to take affirmative action to address the discrimination faced by minorities, especially Muslims, in India. In his address at the 50th anniversary of the Majlis-e-Mashawarat, he talked about the discrimination faced by Muslims and asked for corrective measures that were admissible in the Constitution […]

Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif once again showed his resolve to normalise relations with India and presented four proposals to ease tensions between India and Pakistan. These proposals are respect for the ceasefire understanding of 2003, reaffirmation of the two states to refrain from use of force or threat to use force against each other, […]

The government’s decision to reach out to dissident Baloch nationalist leaders and hold talks with them on the issue of Balochistan is a major step in the right direction. In this regard, the Khan of Kalat was contacted by a Baloch Minister in London in August to discuss the current issues of Balochistan. Earlier, the […]

It is now widely accepted that political transition in Afghanistan will remain inconclusive unless the reconciliation process with insurgent groups is successfully completed. Pakistan facilitated the first round of talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Murree on July 7, 2015. This process came to be known as the Murree peace process. The […]