By Rida Zaheer Pakistani lawyers who had filed a petition in the judges' detention case has withdrawn their complaint against former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf. It was decided by  Advocate Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam Ghumman a day before the hearing of the case on Saturday by the Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court. According to Dawn News, the case was to be heard at General Musharraf's Chak Shahzad farmhou ...

By Phil Greaves  A recent interview given by, yes, you guessed it: an ‘anonymous’ Qatari security official, has shed further light on CIA-led covert arms shipments to militants fighting in Syria. In this Reuters article, the security official and several ‘anonymous’ rebel Commanders confirm that Qatar has “tightened coordination of arms flows [plural] to Syria,” under alleged concern of weapons ending up in ...

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 ...