The writer is a graduate from a western European university. Amid the nosedive in Islamabad-New Delhi relations in the wake of the Uri attack, apprehensions are rife that India may terminate the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) to penalise Pakistan. The Indian prime minister has also consulted his aides on having the treaty revised. For Islamabad, denunciation of the agreement by New Delhi will amount to a declaration of war. Why is the IWT in the…
Posts published in “Day: October 11, 2016”
Once again tensions between Pakistan and India, whipped by war hysteria in the media has created apprehensions of War between the two countries. The present tension has been triggered by the Uri incident in which 18 Indian soldiers were killed for which India blames Pakistan for abetting and sponsoring it. Pakistan denies this. Pakistan believes that India without any evidence and is exploiting the incident it to distract the International Community’s attention from the human…
The writer served as Executive Editor of The Express Tribune from 2009 to 2014 Picking up the gauntlet thrown down by the Indian Prime Minister challenging his Pakistani counterpart to join him in a war against poverty Nawaz Sharif has fittingly retorted back saying that such wars were not fought with ‘blood, fire and brimstone’. Indeed, the opportunity cost of India-Pakistan conflict is being estimated to be enormous in socio-economic terms. Continued military confrontation between…
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad. It is not the rhetoric of our speeches but the substance of our policies manifested in actions that will prevent Pakistan from being pushed into isolation. The season in which we generously issue certificates of patriotism and treachery has arrived again. Every spat between India and Pakistan shrinks space for rational discourse and introspection. While in the zone of belligerence, anyone asking critical questions of the government…
Recently, News18, an Indian news channel, declared to have found the evidence of Indian surgical strikes across the Line of Control. Their claim came in the form of an interview conducted by an Indian reporter, posing as IG Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera, who called Ghulam Akbar, SP Special Branch AJK, in regards to the details of the controversial surgical strikes conducted on 29 September. During the interview, Akbar confirmed the time and location of the Indian…
PML-N lawmaker Rana Muhammad Afzal asked a very important question today that warrants an answer, however inadequate. The MP during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs asked, “Which eggs is Hafiz Saeed laying for us that we are nurturing him?” Pakistan has a problem dealing with its non-state actors, and this is largely affecting its ability to level the field on the diplomatic front. Mr. Afzal was not wrong to…
According to a story published in a local newspaper, the civilian government, in a blunt and unprecedented warning, has informed the military leadership of growing international isolation of Pakistan, and has sought consensus on several key actions by the state. As a result of the most recent meeting, at least two sets of action have been agreed upon. First, DG ISI General Rizwan Akhtar, accompanied by National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua, is to travel to…
The report released by a prominent English daily on Thursday dealing with, among other things, the causes behind Pakistan’s isolation might not have been fully accurate in details but was spot-on in essence. Sections of the media and a number of parliamentarians have been warning the government that it had pushed Pakistan into isolation for failing to take action against the banned outfits. As Senator Aitzaz Ahsan pointed out non-state actors continue to freely carry…
ISLAMABAD: Within a span of five days, the country’s political leadership yet again expressed its unequivocal solidarity with the people of India-held Kashmir through a resolution passed at the parliament’s joint sitting on Friday. The contents of the resolution were more or less the same as those of the previous one endorsed at a multiparty conference held on Monday. However, this time the difference was the absence of lawmakers from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Likewise,…
PPP thunders in Parliament: ‘Why has the govt been unable to defend Pakistan?’ DAWN.COM, Oct 8, 2016
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) played the role of a vibrant opposition party today when it asked the government some tough question about its handling of the Kashmir issue. On the third day of the joint session of Parliament today when a resolution was passed on Kashmir, PPP lawmakers systematically criticised what they said was the government’s inability to make a strong case for Pakistan on the international stage. “The day Prime Minister Nawaz…
ISLAMABAD: Amidst India’s repeated allegations of human rights violations in Balochistan, a key Senate panel has recommended to highlight Indian ‘fault lines’ while suggesting targeting the extremist Hindutva ideology. Adopted by the upper house on Friday in the wake of heightened tension with the hostile neighbour, the first report of the Committee of the Whole titled, “Policy guidelines in view of the latest situation developing between India and Pakistan”, contains 22 guidelines. The guidelines were…