Foreign Policy Blogs

Pakistan

Airport Trouble

Despite being born and raised in Pakistan, I must confess I know almost nothing about how this country operates. I am surprised, every day, especially if I happen to come in contact with any government agency. For example, a friend of mine left for England yesterday. I drover her to the Islamabad airport and told […]

read more

Terror Ties: Pakistan's Costs Run Deep

Current news on the group with which perpetrators of last years Mumbai atrocities are linked, are connected to Pakistan. While news outlets report on Lashkar-E-Taibba’s, it is important to that these connections are viewed within the context of a history of U.S. Pakistan relations, and Pakistan’s current commitment to fighting terrorism. Some reporting on the issue of Lashkar-E-Taibba lacks this comprehensive discussion on Pakistan by overlooking the costs and immediate interest Islamabad has in uprooting terrorism.

read more

Pakistan / EU Relations – Assistance & Development

Current relations between Pakistan and Europe are defined by cooperation. Through humanitarian and supply assistance offered, European states are also working with Islamabad in collaborating on development projects as a form for debt relief to Pakistan. This cooperation comes with Pakistan’s commitment to democracy and successes in uprooting terrorism.

read more

Reconciling the Drone Issue

Latest sources tell us that unmanned CIA predator aircraft are credited with killing Osama bin Laden’s son with strikes in Pakistan earlier this year. Although this has yet to be officially confirmed given the highly “sensitive nature of CIA operations along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier” according to the Washington Post, debate on the use of unmanned […]

read more

Defining the U.S. "Surge" for Pakistan

“Pakistan Objects to U.S. Plan for Afghanistan War” reads a New York Times article yesterday updating us on our foreign policy. The article forewarns of “fissures” in the U.S. Pakistan alliance at this critical moment when President Obama sends additional troops to the region. The article specifically outlines Pakistan’s insistence on maintaining forces along the […]

read more

Power Shortage

It seems that President Zardari has finally had enough about the power shortage in the country. He has decided to get directly involved in the struggle to have the crisis of power cuts and load-shedding (load means electric load on the grids and shedding means of course to lessen the burden on the system that […]

read more

Local Body Elections Can Help Pakistan

There is a new controversy brewing in Pakistan about the local governments. Musharraf government had introduced a system under which local body elections were held and Nazims (a Nazim is like a mayor) were directly elected. However, the problem is that Nazims had very little authority to begin with and now that the current government, […]

read more

Engaging Pakistan Diplomatically

A positive week for U.S. Pakistani Relations

read more

Karachi Trouble

According to a report in Dawn, Pakistan government has lost billions in revenue because of the chaos that was caused by rain in Karachi. This is not good news. There is no question that this rain in Karachi broke all records, at least for the last 30 years, but the response from those who were […]

read more

Please Be Serious & Take Responsibility

In an excellent piece in Daily Times, the writer deplored the conspiracy theorists in Pakistan claiming that the US is working on re-drawing the map of Asia, and there is no room for Pakistan in this ‘new map’. The writer correctly pointed out that this type of hysterical notions have been claiming that Pakistan is […]

read more

Nawaz & Zardari Meeting

I am not a fan of Asif Zardari, but I have to give him credit for swallowing his ego, yet again, and going to meet Nawaz Sharif at Sharif’s residence. Given Pakistan’s awful economical and political situation, I do admire Zardari’s commitment to finding common ground with as many political parties as possible to keep […]

read more

Latest in Pakistan

The good thing is that Prime Minster Gilani has called all the major political parties to share the outcome of this meeting with Indian Prime Minister. This is a wonderful development in a country where everything is slowly sliding back towards stone age. I am sure that my readers would be surprised to read that […]

read more

Latest Pakistan News!!

Dear readers, please accept my apologies for my short absence. I am back and you will get to read latest and update analysis regularly, once again. So much has been going on in the country, but for the time being, my focus remains the same. Ordinary people in Pakistan are suffering, and there is no […]

read more

Water & electricity shortage

Despite my positive outlook about life, I get extremely depressed when I look at Pakistan as an observer from outside. At times, I just don’t know how can the country deal with serious issues threatening Pakistan’s very existence. For me, one way is to stick my head in sand and keep pretending that all is […]

read more

Name one thing wrong!

It is fashionable in Pakistan to oppose America. Perhaps, it is a phobia that has gripped the country that America is bad. Or, it is just plain stupidity that people in Pakistan love to be anti American. No matter how you look at it, there is a campaign in Pakistan against the United States of […]

read more