After living for almost 40 years in Pakistan, majority of the Afghan refugees are now seriously planning to leave for their motherland. The Afghan refugees, some with the status of legitimate refugees and others as illegal, are leaving amid fears of insecurity, lack of employment opportunities and insufficient health and education facilities in the war-torn Afghanistan. Pakistan has recently launched a crackdown against the Afghans living here illegally and deported hundreds of them to Afghanistan.…
Posts published in “Day: September 20, 2016”
The peace agreement that is said to be in the offing between the Kabul administration and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) if and when it is actually signed and sealed is likely to lessen one of the worries of President Ashraf Ghani, no matter how insignificant, but it would certainly save the HIA chief from becoming completely irrelevant to the developing situation in Afghanistan. But beyond that this deal is not likely to bring about…
At least eight insurgents were killed in clashes with security forces in Qarabagh district of Kabul province on Saturday night, local officials said. Among those dead were three Taliban commanders, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) confirmed. Clashes started at about 11pm local time when security forces stormed a house the Taliban were using to make IEDs. According to district governor Samiullah Sharifi: “The clashes ended after three hours and a suspect was also arrested…
At least 17 loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed during an airstrike in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. (Afghan Air Force photo by 438th Air Expeditionary Wing) The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces in a statement said the airstrike was carried out on Saturday evening in Mohmand valley of Achin district. No further details were given regarding the operation involving the airstrike…
The former Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf has said Pakistan had no other option than to support the US-led invasion on Afghanistan in 2001. Musharraf made the remarks during his visit to United Kingdom, insisting that hat Pakistan was left with no choice than to support American attack on Afghanistan because the world had entirely changed after 9/11. He said India was ready to provide its airbases to US in case Pakistan did not provide…
WASHINGTON: As Pakistan prepares to highlight the current situation in India-held Kashmir at the UN General Assembly and India plans to counter it by raising the Baloch issue, the United States has made it clear that it will not back either side. “What we have said — nothing is changed about our view that we want to see India and Pakistan work this out bilaterally,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby when asked to define…
The United States on Saturday said it is aware of the recent arrests of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders and is monitoring the events ‘closely’. “We’re monitoring those events very closely. We’re aware that Pakistani security forces have arrested some MQM members allegedly involved in violent protests and that these operations have included the closure and the demolition of offices deemed to have been illegally constructed,” US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said. Addressing…
Book Review:The End of the Great Game By Hasan M. Sadiq ISBN: 978-9692308809 HMS Books, Pakistan 374pp. (The reviewer is the Director of Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), Islamabad) .Global politics is a complex web where one development can lead to many others, and one intervention to mitigate a conflict can expose the fissures of many other dormant conflicts. However, it always remains a hard task to find some direct relation between two distant…
ISLAMABAD: The United States could not achieve its long-term development objectives in Pakistan that it had set under the $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar Act due to competing short-term political priorities of the State Department, says a damning report by the USAID Inspector General’s Office released earlier this month. The report titled ‘Competing priorities have complicated USAID-Pakistan’s efforts to achieve long-term development under EPPA (Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act) of 2009’ reveals that against the five-year package…
The writer is a member of staff. OFF he’s headed to the UN again, with talking points that aren’t his and an agenda he’d rather not have. Thwarted by Modi? Sure. Stymied by Pathankot? Definitely. But let’s not kid around: Nawaz’s foreign policy agenda was derailed early and comprehensively. We know most of the story of how the PM with a historic mandate and an ambitious regional agenda was quickly reduced to inaugurator-in-chief of bits…
ISLAMABAD: Sarfraz Merchant has though provided some convincing evidence about Altaf Hussain’s links with RAW, those probing the case need crosschecking and verification of the available proof from foreign authorities to make it a fit case to prove in a court of law. Interior ministry sources told The News that the probe, which was referred to the FIA in March this year, may take a few years to conclude. “Expecting something to happen in a…