(An authoritative account of how Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan helped spread nuclear terrorism unhindered for decades)  Review by Bob Drogin in The Los Angeles Times, May 11
Nuclear weapons, which largely faded from front pages after the Cold War, are back in the news. President Obama endorsed a new national security strategy, and earlier this year he signed an ambitious arms control treaty with Russia, further easing fears of global Armageddon. But Obama also led an unprecedented summit of world leaders to warn of an increasingly urgent threat — nuclear terrorism.
Much of …

Uighur leader killed in Pakistan: Rehman Malik
BEIJING: Pakistan and China have “broken the back” of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which China accuses of orchestrating attacks in its restive Xinjiang region, Pakistan’s Interior Minister said in Beijing on Friday.
An alleged leader of the group, about which little is known, has been killed, Rehman Malik said at the end of a visit to discuss security cooperation between the two countries.
China has granted long-standing ally Pakistan a $180 million loan to purchase police equipment, including armoured personnel carriers and bullet-proof jackets, …

By Ansar Abbasi in The News, Apr 26
ISLAMABAD: After the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), now apprehensions are also being expressed by the PML-N about some alleged conspiracy being hatched by certain elements belonging to the Army and intelligence agencies.
Though it is whispered and not publicly said in so many words, in their off-the-record discussions with media persons, some PML-N leaders express their fears that the third force is preparing the ground to do something extra-constitutional.
Ahsan Iqbal is on the record as having said on Saturday that a third force wants …

BY now Pakistanis are accustomed to ‘non-state actors’ — nebulous creatures that are blamed for the nation’s ills and help the government defer the burden of accountability. In a nod to these elements, we learnt this month that the violence and intolerance that permeate this country’s campuses are the work of ‘non-student elements’.
This coinage comes from the Punjab University (PU), which re-opened recently as a 19-day faculty boycott came to an end. The faculty was protesting the beating — many describe it as attempted murder — of a professor. As …

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 …

ISLAMABAD: The UN report on the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto revealed that it was the ex-MI chief Maj-Gen Nadeem Ijaz, who ordered the then Rawalpindi City CPO Saud Aziz, to hose down the scene of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination at Liaquat Bagh.
Maj-Gen Nadeem, currently serving as Log Area Commander in Gujranwala after his transfer from the MI some time back, is a relative of Pervez Musharraf. He, however, was a known crony of the former dictator and his ‘key adviser’ on all national issues.
Defence analysts have raised a …

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, …

By Patrick Cockburn in The Independent, Apr 16
The Pakistani army has fought successfully to control mountainous frontier areas once ruled by the Pakistani Taliban, but it remains reluctant to attack the cross-border safe havens of the Afghan Taliban despite American pressure.
Pakistani soldiers in Bajaur district on the Afghan frontier are eager to demonstrate what they have already achieved, showing off captured tunnels dug into the hillside by the local Taliban to protect their fighters against air and artillery attack. On display are some rockets and shells and a broken sign …

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 …