By Asif Haroon Raja The interim nuclear deal signed between Iran and P5 plus 1 in Geneva on November 24 has apparently defused the explosive situation in Middle East. It has been widely hailed as the triumph of diplomacy. President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javed Zarif are being applauded for their pragmatism and for averting a catastrophic war in the making. High sounding names such as historic, ...

 By Sajjad Shaukat Sectarian violence continues in Pakistan in one form or the other. In this regard, Punjab President of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), Maulana Shamsur Rehman Muaviya was shot dead by the two unidentified gunmen in Lahore on December 6, this year. A large number of workers of ASWJ staged sit-in protest and demonstrations across the country against his targeted killing. Particularly, in Laho ...

Asif Haroon Raja Once Bajaur came into the loop of terrorism in 2006, it became the exclusive domain of Maulvi Faqir Muhammad because of easy inflow of arms, equipment and funds from Kunar. This route of supply was also used for Swat via Dir. Srarogha within Mehsuds inhabited South Waziristan (SW) became the command centre of TTP under Baitullah Mehsud, where Qari Hussain trained small boys aged between 11 ...

  Asif Haroon Raja Pakistan has offered huge sacrifices to fight the menace of global war on terrorism (GWOT). It suffered exceptionally serious losses in terms of human resource victims, devastation of valuable property, impulsive political instability, bursting social disorder, divisive mindset, and poor law and order situation leading to creation of threatening environment filled with sense of fear and u ...

 By Sajjad Shaukat With the technological advancement, new era of economic development has changed the world in a global village. Long-awaited agreement which was concluded between Iran and six world powers on November 24, this year has endorsed this fact that Tehran is more interested in the welfare of its people than to continue war of nerves with the US-led European countries on the issue of its nuclear ...

By Asif Haroon Raja Nawaz led team is thinking and talking high and has announced highly ambitious mega projects which it intends completing during its mandated five-year tenure expiring in May 2018. Some of the main projects include Pak-China economic corridor linking Kashgar with Gawadar by Highway and rail, converting Gawadar into free port like Hong Kong, bullet train, Lahore-Karachi motorway, metro sys ...

 By Sajjad Shaukat Having pro-Indian tilt, since Bangladesh’s Awami League came into power, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid has started a deliberate propaganda campaign against Pakistan, its army and especially Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). In this context, on the direction of India, unlike the past years, a ceremony was held in Dhaka on March 24, 2013, with full pump and show to honour ‘Foreign Fri ...

By Asif Haroon Raja Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) was founded by socio-political philosopher Abul Ala Maudoodi on August 26, 1941. He opposed capitalism, socialism and secularism but advocated democracy as an integral part of Islamic political ideals. He had close ties with Muslim Brotherhood leader Qutb. Although Maudoodi rendered great service for the cause of Islam, he was among the staunch opponents of idea of P ...