By Myra MacDonald in the Reuters Blog
DAMADOLA: Despite initial military successes against the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan is unlikely to move any time soon to dismantle the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group. As I wrote in this analysis,  Pakistani security officials say the country has enough on its plate fighting militants on its Afghan border without opening a new front in Punjab province, where the LeT is based. They argue this could drive the LeT – which has been careful not to launch attacks within Pakistan itself …

By Babar Dogar & Ranjan Roy in The News, Apr 24
LAHORE: Former foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri has said the solution to the Kashmir dispute is just a signature away once India and Pakistan decide to pull the file from the rack.
While addressing the concluding session of the two-day seminar — held as part of the ongoing Aman ki Asha campaign, launched by the Jang Group and Times of India — and later talking to The News and the Times of India here on Friday, the former foreign minister revealed …

By Nadeem F. Paracha in the Dawn blogs
In 1947 the only established student organisation in the newly created country of Pakistan was the Muslim Students Federation (MSF), the student-wing of the Muslim League. The Muslim League began to disintegrate as Pakistan’s first ruling party. Consequently, the MSF too started to reflect the fragmentary nature of its mother party.
In 1950, a group of students in Karachi formed a progressive student organisation called the Democratic Students Federation (DSF). The organisation’s rapid growth led it to becoming a powerful platform for the students, …

India, along with China, is the economic engine that will drive global economic growth for possibly decades to come. The whole world is keen for a slice of that action. Are we — who ironically are best placed to take advantage (both directly and indirectly) — to be the only ones to reject such a golden opportunity?
Many readers are probably watching the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches these days. Like it or not, the event is now firmly established, is clearly a big success, and likely to go from strength …

Op-ed by Mohammad Saleem in The Dawn, Apr 14
FAISALABAD: The fresh wave of heinous crime believed to be perpetrated by a certain religious outfit against a number of Ahmedi families in Faisalabad has forced the latter to move to “safer places.”
The families facing robbery, kidnap for ransom and killing incidents are having sleepless nights more so because of alleged police failure to protect them.
The recent murder of Arshad, Asif and Masood has frightened the community many members of which have gone into hiding. Some of them have accused the police …

By David Usborne, US Editor, in The Independent, Apr 14
Washington: China is being privately reassured that its supplies of oil would be guaranteed in the event that it supports tough new UN sanctions on Iran, its third largest supplier of crude.
Western sources at the nuclear security summit Washington confirmed “talks have been going in that direction” with China. Such an agreement, designed to clear a major obstacle to consensus on new measures against Iran, may also have been discussed by President Barack Obama with Hu Jintao, the President of China, …

By Zeeshan Javaid in the Daily Times, April 7
ISLAMABAD: A 12.08-kilometre lake formed by a massive landslide in Hunza valley is threatening to sweep through the area, wipe out villages and endanger 45,000 people who live downstream, but there is no chance of bursting of the lake, Daily Times learnt on Tuesday.
Sources told Daily Times that the lake’s depth has reached 251.25 feet, while average water level in the water mass rises 1.4 feet near the lake barrier on a daily basis.
According to sources, …

A month after a landslide in Upper Hunza killed 20 people and left 1,500 others homeless, the fate of the victims has largely been forgotten. Their suffering is far from over. The Gojal tehsil remains cut off from the rest of the country, since the river was dammed as a result of debris tumbling into it after the landslide and has risen into a lake blocking the Karakorum Highway. About 75 households trapped beyond this lake must rely on goods from China to survive. They are forced to buy these …

FOR the most part, Azad Jammu and Kashmir managed to escape the violence that has engulfed Pakistan in recent years. But the last six months or so have seen a spike in terrorist activity, the most recent being Wednesday’s deadly suicide attack outside a military barracks in Tararkhel. Security forces in AJK were earlier targeted by a suicide bomber in June last year, an incident that claimed the lives of two soldiers. Then, in November, three men blew themselves up after they were besieged by police and area residents in …

By Maqbool Malik Submitted in The Nation, Dec 31
ISLAMABAD – Naheed Khan, former MNA and political secretary to the assassinated PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, is unlikely to accept party offer for the slot of the first governor of Gilgit-Baltistan.
“We don’t need any office. What we expect from the party leadership is to consider our proposals seriously which we have floated for the betterment of the party,” Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, husband of Naheed Khan, informed TheNation when contacted for comments on Wednesday.
He said that party leadership has discussed no …