How will Gwadar become a world-class port city without a fresh water supply? A drought-like situation has hit the Gwadar city for the fourth time in the last six years. The use of a Pakistan Navy tanker to supply the city with 1,200 tonnes of water over the weekend may have served as a reprieve for the residents of the port city, but it has only served to further highlight the precariousness of the situation.…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
Earlier this month, vice chancellors from 60 universities of the country huddled at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) head office to discuss ways to end intolerance and radicalisation in higher education institutes. The policy seminar at HEC was held in the wake of the unprecedented lynching incident of a student, Mashal Khan, at Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan. There was consensus among all attendees that universities needed to be made relevant to our social needs…
ISLAMABAD: The United States on Wednesday pledged to provide $81 million (over Rs8.5 billion) to the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for the construction of first stage (Kaitu Weir) of the Kurram Tangi Dam project in North Waziristan Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). In this regard, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Wapda signed an agreement at a ceremony. Federal Minister of Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, US…
The writer is a retired lieutenant general of the Pakistan Army and a former federal secretary. The impediments that Pakistan is facing in the procurement of a meagre eight F-16 fighter aircraft are a sad reflection of the current state of Pakistan-US relations. For Pakistan, in the 1980s, the F-16 symbolised its strong alliance with the US and the West. It fed the Pakistan military’s pride to aspire for the best in technology and performance,…
The writer is a senior police officer posted to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. By carrying out a suicide attack outside a court’s premises in Shabqadar, militants once again registered their presence in Charsadda. Through an attack such as this, the militants not only wanted to inflict damages but also send out certain clear-cut messages. In the backdrop of the Army Public School (APS) and Bacha Khan University (BKU) attacks, law-enforcement agencies primarily invested their energies in the enhancement…
KARACHI: The National Peace Committee for Interfaith Harmony on Sunday took out rallies in favour of the Pakistan Army and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur. The rally in Karachi ended outside the Karachi Press Club. A large number of participants, carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans in favour of the Pakistan Army and General Raheel Sharif, chanted slogans of “Long Live Pakistan” and “Long Live Pak…
Afghan Charge d’Affaires Syed Abdul Nasir Yousafi was summoned by the Foreign Office on January 27 to convey Pakistan’s concern regarding the use of Afghan soil by terrorist elements to direct the horrific attack on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda in which unidentified gunmen opened fire on students and faculty members, leaving at least 21 people dead. This attack, reminiscent of the devastating Army Public School (APS) massacre of December 2014, traces its origins…
Recent attacks against Indian interests – one in Pathankot inside India and the other in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan – show how terrorists remain able to not only strike at sensitive locations, but also disrupt crucial, landmark diplomatic advances. To a large extent the terrorist attack has achieved its aim, though not completely. New Delhi has acted more responsibly than expected, but it has associated further advancement in the recent ‘thaw’ with progress, from Pakistan, on…
In Javid Nama, Allama Iqbal says: “Asia is like a human body, made of Water and Clay, And the Afghan nation in that body is like the heart!” The recently concluded Heart of Asia Conference in Islamabad and the four preceding such conferences derive their name from the verse quoted above. This verse was referred to by the prime minister of Afghanistan as well as the Afghan president in Islamabad. The declaration adopted by the…
The writer is a former visiting fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, California. For a country to dissuade an adversary from undertaking an action that the former considers undesirable, it has to first communicate to the adversary that the cost of any action might out-weigh the benefits. This communication must be backed by the capability to inflict that cost and the credibility or the political will to undertake that action if need arises.…
Why is India winning the perception war?: op-ed
by Dr Kamal Monnoo in The Nation, Jan 24, 2018 The writer is an entrepreneur and economic analyst. So why is India winning the perception war against Pakistan? The answer can be traced back to the 90s when the Indian Finance Ministry, the Reserve bank of India and the Planning Commission of India jointly formed a strategy (under the guidance of the then leadership, likes of Manmohan Singh and Monty Singh Aalloohwala) to support Indian…