Asif Haroon Raja Creation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947 broke the century old shackles of bondage. Although a moth-eaten and truncated Pakistan, yet it was the largest Muslim nation in the world. Seventy million hearts of Pakistanis throbbed and pulsated with rapturous excitement and joy. The unfurling of the green and white banner raised their heads with pride and their jubilation knew no bounds. Their re ...

By Bill Van Auken A US airstrike in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday killed 10 civilians, including five children. The deadly attack came just hours after the State of the Union speech in which President Barack Obama falsely claimed that the more than decade-long US war and occupation in Afghanistan “will be over” by the end of next year. Afghanistan’s Pajhwok Afghan News agency (PAN) reported that the civilia ...

By Usman Khalid, Director Rifah Institute of Foreign Affairs (RIFA) Not many people know that Hindus are a minority in India. The number of those within the fold of chaturvarna i.e. four castes (Brahmin, Kashatri, Vesh and Shudara) are no more than 15% of the population of India – the same as the Muslims. The original inhabitants of India are treated as ‘untouchables’ like the shudras but their number is 65 ...

By Zaheerul Hassan Last year Asian giant has made significant increase of 17.6 percent over the previous amount of defence budget for 2011-12. Her defence budget for 2012-13, was US $40.3 billion for the Defence Services that include the three armed forces (Army, Navy and Air Force), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Ordnance Factories. The major portion of the Civil Estimate is h ...

Ali Ashraf Khan The Kargil episode that in 1999 involved India and Pakistan in another military adventure and ended with the humiliation of Pakistan has since then boggled the minds of not only Indians and Pakistanis but of people interested in Indo-Pak relations and world politics all over the world as to what was the actual purpose of that adventure that cost the lives of hundreds of soldiers on both side ...

By Sajjad Shaukat Despite the fact that Pakistan’s law-enforcing agencies and intelligence outfits have thwarted many terror attempts of the militants through pre-arrests, discovery of weapons and huge explosive material, suicide jackets etc., but terrorists keeps on targeting the installations of security forces, intelligence agencies and police including government buildings through bomb blasts, suicide a ...

By RT CIA Director-designate John Brennan strongly defended the use of drones for fighting terror suspects as he was grilled by the Senate over one of Washington’s most-criticized policies. John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the new CIA chief, had a tough time answering some questions posed by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Repeated interruptions by anti-war protesters did ...

First letter on the above issue was sent by me to a news paper in October 2003.  It was sent to one Mr Aslam Minhas who did not see eye to eye with the then DGMO, Maj Gen Pervez Musharraf when he presented his “plan” on Kargil much earlier.  Mr Aslam’s comments were that the action done by Gen Musharraf had set back the Indo-Pak peace process by 20 years.  My reply to Mr Aslam was that Pakistan had to act t ...