The author is pursuing his studies in International Relations at University of Karachi. They assassinated three of my teachers on the basis of an assumption that they belonged to ASWJ, since they used to offer their prayers in suspicious masjids. They killed my father Dr. Shakil Auj on the allegation of blasphemy while he was going towards Iranian Cultural Center as the Chief Guest. Interestingly, in both cases, the victims were targeted on sectarian cum…
Posts published in December 2016
KARACHI: The federal government has issued at least seven special permits to dignitaries of Bahrain, including King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, to hunt the internationally protected bird houbara bustard in the country during the 2016-17 hunting season, according to sources. Among those who have been given the permits to hunt the migratory bird in Sindh and Balochistan are an uncle of the king, his defence adviser, a field marshal and armed forces…
LAHORE : Saudi government while taking action on intelligence report has arrested 18 Pakistani women and men working in the country as beggars. With the beginning of Umrah season, beggar mafia has become active and has sent at least 210 Pakistani beggars to Madina on Umrah visas. Police is conducting raids to arrest other 192 people. The detainees have been kept in Madina jail with women in barrack no.56 and men in barrack no.47. Those…
ISLAMABAD: The two-day visit by Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan to Iran, which was scheduled to start from Wednesday, has been called off, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce told Dawn on Tuesday. He declined to disclose the reason. The visit aimed to pave way for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2017. According to information shared Pakistan has already forwarded the FTA draft to Tehran. Speaking to Radio Tehran earlier,…
The writer is the Senior Superintendent of Police, Special Branch, Lahore Will the New Year bring any solace to the war-torn Afghanistan? Who will play a critical role to ensure peace in the coming year? Will Taliban hold on for another year or buckle down under pressure from the US and its allies in Afghanistan? These questions will depend upon the nature of the insurgency, type of intelligence operations, reactions of inside actors and locus…
The US is currently “annoyed” with Pakistan for strengthening strategic ties with Russia, though there is little instance when it is not. Although a direct message to restrict involvement has not been received from Washington, not-so-subtle hints have been aplenty.The US is hardly in a position to express its misgivings, as it has long left its Cold War politics aside and forged a new relationship with India, distancing itself from its then ally Pakistan.It cannot…
KABUL – Kabul voiced displeasure over the planned trilateral meeting between China, Russia and Pakistan on Afghanistan in Moscow on Tuesday, Tolo News reported. Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MoFA) spokesman Ahmad Shekib Mustaghni said Monday that the agenda of the meeting was a matter of concern. Despite Afghanistan being the focus of their agenda, Kabul was not consulted, he said. “Talking on Afghanistan without consulting the country raises serious questions for the Afghan people.…
The Afghan government officials have reacted towards a trilateral meeting involving Pakistan, China, and Russia to discuss Afghanistan, expressing concerns regarding the absence of Afghan officials in the summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmad Shekib Mostaghni said the Afghan government is not optimistic regarding the outcome of the meeting. Raising questions regarding the absence of Afghan officials in the meeting, Mostaghni said such meetings without the presence of Afghan officials will not represent…
ISLAMABAD: A senior leader of the Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) has said that Pakistan has neither interfered nor opposed its peace talks with the administration of President Ashraf Ghani. “Pakistan had supported the HIA-Kabul negotiations which led to the signing of a peace deal in September,” Dr Ghairat Baheer, the head of HIA’s political affairs committee, told The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview. Afghan diplomatic sources endorsed Dr Baheer, saying that Pakistan had not interfered…
The writer is a foreign policy expert based in Washington, DC. THERE is a lot of curiosity about how the Donald Trump administration may deal with Pakistan and the broader South Asian region. But there is too much uncertainty still for political analysis to produce anything truly meaningful in response. More useful would be to explain the various nodes of uncertainty and narrow down the focus of the discussion to developments that would matter most…
Islamabad: Dr Humayun J.Chaudhry, president and chief executive officer of the Federation of State Medical Boards of United States, said that till to date, 12,000 Pakistani national physicians and specialists doctors are working in 50 different states of USA. He added that out of 12,000 doctors 3,100 doctors had graduated from Dow University of Health Sciences, 1,900 from King Edward Medical college, then from Agha Khan University and also Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore. He…