the author is a Kashmir-based journalist, thinker, rationalist, philosopher, writer and a public relations professional: Jus ad bellum. Jus (or ius) ad bellum is the title given to the branch of law that defines the legitimate reasons a state may engage in war and focuses on certain criteria that render a war just. The principal modern legal source of jus ad bellum derives from the Charter of the United Nations, which declares in Article 2:…
Posts published in “Day: January 4, 2016”
(This article has been excerpted from: ‘Taliban rising’) The resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan is emphatic evidence that Nato’s prolonged military mission there has been a dismal failure. This failure is not however a measure of the failure to impose a liberal democracy in the country but in the lives destroyed in the attempt. As is the case all across the UK in 2015, homeless people are a regular fixture on some streets.…
Peace in Afghanistan seems to be a far off dream, so too even the slightest veneer of it. On Friday, a suicide bombing at a French restaurant in the Afghan capital of Kabul sent residents reeling. One child was killed and a dozen or so people injured. No doubt, the restaurant was a soft target; it was one of those last remaining places that was frequented by foreigners and was thought of as relatively safer…
By Tahir Khan in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2016 ISLAMABAD: The second largest Afghan resistance group after the Taliban favours a negotiated solution to the deadly conflict in Afghanistan but says peace talks should be held within Afghanistan. Dr Ghairat Baheer, who heads Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA)’s political commission, said no group should be left out of the peace process. However, he doesn’t see the talks happening in the near future as “controversy over…
By Zulfiqar Ali in dawn, Jan 4, 2026 PESHAWAR: Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, has called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take parliament into confidence about the army chief`s visit to Afghanistan on Dec 27. Speaking at a press conference at the party`s secretariat on Sunday, he said the prime minister should explain whether or not Gen Raheel Sharif had proceeded to Kabul with his permission.…
The writer is the Foreign Editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who came to the throne almost a year ago, is one of seven brothers by the same mother. As soon as he took power on the death of his half-brother Abdullah, he made sure that the next two men in line to the throne were from his section of the royal House of Saud – second…
The writer is the Foreign Editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who came to the throne almost a year ago, is one of seven brothers by the same mother. As soon as he took power on the death of his half-brother Abdullah, he made sure that the next two men in line to the throne were from his section of the royal House of Saud – second…
Aaron Halegua and Jerome A. Cohen in : The Washington Post, Jan 3 at 8.06PM (Eli Friedman is assistant professor of international and comparative labor at Cornell University. Aaron Halegua is a research scholar of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University School of Law. Jerome A. Cohen is director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute and an adjunct senior fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations) They came for the feminists in…
The author is a freelance writer The new counterterrorism coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries such as Libya and Yemen. After initial ambiguity Pakistan has welcomed the initiative and the government of Pakistan has confirmed its participation in the Saudi-led military alliance for ‘fighting terrorism’. African nations that have suffered militant attacks such as Mali, Chad, Somalia and Nigeria…
Protests in Iran over the execution of prominent Shia cleric Shiekh Nimr Al-Nimr by the Saudi government took a new turn on Saturday night when protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and put parts of it to flame. The Iranian Ambassador was asked to leave Saudi Arabia as a result of this, after being summoned by the Saudi government to lodge their protest of the negative comments emerging from the others’ border. The Saudi…
Karachi: The Shia groups in Karachi organised peaceful protest rallies on Sunday against the execution of prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr by the Saudi authorities. However, law enforcement officials fear the conflict in the Middle East can an outbreak of sectarian violence in the country, especially in Karachi. They are concerned that militants affiliated with sectarian outfits might target Saudi and Iranian installations in the city. The Majlis-e-Wahdat Muslimeen…