By Sajjad Shaukat Diplomacy which is defined as an art of negotiations to resolve an issue has many meanings, if a single word is added with it. For example, shrewd diplomacy, sham diplomacy, power diplomacy, peace diplomacy etc. might be cited as example. In this regard, a Pakistani prisoner, Sanaullah Haq who received serious injuries, and died on May 9, this year because he was badly beaten by an ex-Indi ...

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 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 ...

B y Asif Haroon Raja The people have lost trust in their leaders because they have repeatedly betrayed them in the name of democracy. While democracy was sold as the remedy for all their ailments, democracy made the lives of the lower class of society miserable. The elites enriched themselves by using state resources and looting the national wealth but did little to allay the sufferings of the under privile ...

By Asif Haroon Raja None can deny that the US and its allies apparently mandated to eliminate terrorism in Afghanistan had a different agenda. Under the garb of fighting terrorism, Pakistan was to be systematically destabilized, weakened, de-nuked, secularized and turned into a compliant state. The six intelligence units led by CIA based in Kabul since end 2001 were instrumental in diverting flames of terro ...