Pakistan Army has handed over a purpose-built crossing facility at Angoor Adda to Afghan forces, aiming at improving border management and strengthening bilateral relations between the two neighbouring countries. The move comes a week after Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal and Army chief General Raheel Sharif agreed during a meeting to resume routine and border traffic at Torkham border. According to DG Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa, the gesture will act as…
Posts published in “Day: May 24, 2016”
ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that the Afghan Taliban have not yet responded positively to the efforts made by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) to revive talks between them and the Afghan government, Dawn.com reported on Friday. Addressing the fifth round of Pakistan-Afghanistan dialogue organised by the Regional Peace Institute on Friday, Mr Aziz said that the QCG, comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China, has been…
the writer is a Lahore-based journalist The argument used to block the subsidy resides in the older thesis that the F-16s would be used against India, not the militants Pakistan has been denied the sale of eight F-16s through the Foreign Military Financing Program (MFP) by the US. If Pakistan still desires to buy these aircraft it has to pay the full amount of $700 million, which in case of the subsidy would have gone…
In a rare letter to the editor of The New York Times, former president Asif Ali Zardari has questioned the United States’ commitment to the security needs of Pakistan. Responding to a New York Times editorial which attacked Pakistan being a “duplicitous and dangerous” partner for the United States and Afghanistan, the PPP co-chairman emphasised how what once was a strong partnership allied against threats to the region was sadly frayed, while citing the struggle…
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan was panicked after the United States hinted at more aid restrictions on the terror war allay amid the already ‘complicated’ ties, officials in Islamabad said yesterday. The alarm bells started ringing yesterday when, brushing aside White House objections, US House of Representatives passed a $602 billion defence policy bill that blocks $450 million aid to Pakistan unless it does more in fight against terrorism. The US lawmakers were looking to use the…
WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives has passed several amendments that seek to restrict US military aid to Pakistan, ignoring a White House warning that such moves would harm bilateral relations. The measures are included in the National Defence Authorisation Act that the House passed on Thursday with 277 votes to 147. The bill, as adopted by the House, requires the US administration to certify that Pakistan has met certain conditions before releasing $450 million…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is left with barely a few days to decide if it will pay for the eight F-16 aircraft it intends to procure from the United States from its own kitty or else lose the opportunity of buying the jets believed to be one of the best fourth-generation multi-role fighters. “If Pakistan still desires to buy the F-16s, it would have to issue the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) by May 24,” a diplomatic source…
Breathing life back into the stalled peace process between India and Pakistan is not going to be easy, but if the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan is to be taken at his word, then India remains ready to go ahead with the dialogue. Future talks would include all issues and include Kashmir. These positive sentiments came on May 18 when Gautam Bambawale said that he expected a breakthrough in the resumption of the process of…
The great retreating tide of wasted credit that defined China’s development in the last seven years has left behind, in forgotten byways, a landscape of ghostly urban desolation. They come like snapshots of de Chirico paintings: Clusters of condominiums towering over dusty towns. Vast shopping malls where the echoes are louder than footfall. Metal mines in rust-belt country with piles of excavated minerals still waiting for delivery trucks that never came. Now, more than three…
The US-Saudi relationship has always been paradoxical. The two countries frequently rail against each other, with Washington calling Saudi Arabia the biggest incubator and financier of terrorism in the world and Riyadh responding with rote denunciations of American imperialism. Yet the two countries always feel they need each other. The US is addicted to Saudi oil and the Saudis to US arms. The underlying tension in this alliance, however, may now lead to its unravelling.…
The writer works for the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad. As Tehran shakes off the morning-after effects of its international comeback, regional powers are lining up to cash in on the new Iranian moment, taking advantage of credit lines and reaching for investment opportunities. With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tehran this week, Chabahar’s do-over as an Indian gateway into West Asia checks another box on a long list of strategic transformations. China and Iran…