Posted by Javed Iqbal The commitment made by all political parties of Balochistan to participate in the upcoming elections is quite refreshing. More so, the Chief Election Commissioner’s visit to Quetta is encouraging, since he has taken various steps to address some of the issues facing prospective candidates. The caretaker Chief Minister of Balochistan has also vowed to make an all-out effort to ensure pe ...

Posted by Khurrum Shehzad With approximately 3.2 per cent of the total world area and 28 per cent of world population the geostrategic architecture of South Asia has always attracted the great global players including the U.S. Pakistan and India - two core regional actors - have historically been vital to Washington in meeting its strategic objectives. Ever since demise of former Soviet Union in 1991, the U ...

By Asif Haroon Raja The heavy mandate Nawaz Sharif’s rule came to an abrupt end after two years eight months as a result of military coup by Gen Musharraf on October 12, 1999. He was later on exiled for ten years. After 9/11, Musharraf was coerced and induced by the US and led to believe that partnership with USA would uplift Pakistan’s depressed fortunes and pave the way for prosperity. He was assured that ...

      By Sajjad Shaukat In the recent months, the militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliated outfits accelerated their terror-activities by attacking the leaders and election-sites of the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) including some other political parties and offices of the Election Commission of Pakistan till May 11, 2013 to ...

By Zaheerul Hasaan According to the latest unofficial results, so far Nawaz Sharif led party ML (N) won 125 National Assembly seats; PPP party went from first to second position and won 32 seats. Whereas, PTI under the chairmanship of old cricket team captain Imran Khan emerged as third largest party after wining 31 National Assembly seats. To win a simple majority, a party or coalition would have to bag 13 ...

By Asif Haroon Raja The US sole worry is to ensure safe and smooth withdrawal of US-NATO troops. At the same time it wishes to ensure peaceful transition of power in Afghanistan and to leave behind stable Afghanistan under a US friendly regime. Another aspect which is yet to be decided is the size of residuary force that will be left behind after 2014. Kabul government has yet not given blanket diplomatic i ...

 by Mordechai Kedar To the Honorable Leaders of the Arab States, We in Israel received with great pleasure your agreement to normalize relations with Israel  on condition that we agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state and exchanges of territories between that state and Israel. The Palestinian state that you propose to establish in Judea and Samaria would be the second Palestinian state, since the ...

Syria's main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to  al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting  Bashar al-Assad's regime. Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma ...