By  Yasmeen Aftab Ali Afghanistan and Pakistan are going through extended periods of distrust owing to security situation on the border where Islamabad has been blamed for creating safe havens for various militant groups. This along with the withdrawal of NATO forces and diverting of Afghan trade to Iran has resulted in decline of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Repeated closure of Pak-Afghan border ...

By Sajjad Shaukat One of the important causes of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union was that its greater defence expenditure exceeded to the maximum, resulting into economic crisis inside the country. In this regard, about a prolonged war in Afghanistan, the former President Gorbachev had declared it as the “bleeding wound.” However, militarization of the Soviet Union failed in controlling the mo ...

By General Mirza Aslam Beg Former COAS, Pakistan Army Email: friendscolumn@hotmail.com American Secretary of States’ hop-over visit’ to Pakistan, on his way to India, was a crude diplomatic gesture of brow-beating Pakistan. He handed over the demand note, as confirmed by a senior US diplomat – Alice Wells: “US wants to see practical steps from Pakistan, over the next few weeks, and not months, to use its in ...

Post Tillerson’s visit By Yasmeen Ali  Two different narratives seemingly appeared upon US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit. Narratives that are not new. Both US and Pakistan need to understand the thought process of each other, to then seek a common ground to achieve peace in Afghanistan. The conflict in Afghanistan is of the pre-trump era. According to Steve Bannon Donald Trump’s ex-White House Ch ...

by Asif Haroon Raja Iran under Reza Shah Pahlavi enjoyed best of relations with USA as well as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Their relations dipped to lowest ebb once Imam Khomeini came to power in March 1979 and the King had to take refuge in Cairo. Iran under Khomeini crashed the twin pillar policy of USA for the Middle East based on Iran and KSA. Islamic revolution in Iran which had a ripple effect in t ...

By SASHA “Cleanliness is half the faith”, is a well-known Hadith. Its dictates affect starts from the person through community leading to environment. Waste handling in our society is the most neglected subject left to a particular class. In Pakistan per capita Municipal Solid Waste produced is upto 0.613 kg increasing @ 2.4% per annum. Encouraging factor in this field are establishment of waste management ...

by Zaheerul Hassan According to CNN reports of 29 March 2017 more than 47000 people have been killed in Kashmir, a region in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges. India, Pakistan and China all claim partial or complete ownership of Kashmir. But according to UNO resolutions of 1949 and 1951 the fate of Kashmir has to be decided through plebiscite under UN arrangements.  However, India always denied UN ...

By Sajjad Shaukat Although 27th of October is celebrated every year as the “Black Day” by the Pakistanis and the Kashmiris all over the world as a protest against Indian illegal occupation of Kashmir on October 27, 1947, yet this time, this very day has come at time when the people of Kashmir have accelerated their legitimate struggle in the aftermath of the martyrdom of the young Kashmir leader Burhan Wani ...