Last month’s nuclear deal under which Iran agreed to very substantial curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of economic and other sanctions was a historic achievement for...
On July 10, the government informed the Supreme Court that it had issued an executive order for the replacement of English with Urdu as the country’s official language in stages. The decision had...
The meeting on July 10 between Nawaz Sharif and Modi at Ufa on the sidelines of the SCO summit will go down as a major diplomatic retreat by Pakistan on the two top questions of the Pakistan-India...
The meeting brokered by Pakistan last Tuesday in Murree between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban was the first one in which the two sides in the Afghan civil war met formally...
There are many reputable international non-governmental organisations established or funded by official and semi-official agencies of different countries or by private donors, which are doing...
Last Tuesday, the German Foreign Office hosted a conference in Berlin to discuss the competing interests of different international actors in the Indian Ocean and to explore possibilities of...
At a press conference on May 31 held to highlight the Modi government’s foreign policy achievements during its first year in power, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj spelled out India’s...
Indian Defence Minister Parrikar’s remarks on an Indian news channel on May 21, that Delhi has a policy of “neutralising terrorists through terrorists” and that “India will take proactive...
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to China from May 14 to May 16 was the second top-level visit between the two countries since the hard-line nationalist leader came to power a year ago...
Last Wednesday, India and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, not far from Gwadar, which Pakistan is developing as a deep-water port with...
Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan two weeks ago was the first to the country by a Chinese president since that of his predecessor Hu Jintao in 2006. It had originally been scheduled for September...
Almost a year and a half after the initial interim deal of November 2013, under which Iran agreed to roll back or freeze parts of its nuclear programme and to enter into negotiations on a long-term...
For nearly two weeks now, the government has been agonising over its response to a Saudi request for Pakistan’s participation in a military operation by a Saudi-led coalition of predominantly...
There could hardly be a more open and shut case of treason than the one against Musharraf for his attempt to overthrow the constitution in November 2007. The law states clearly that anyone who...
From March 10 to 14, Indian Prime Minister Modi made a much-publicised trip to three island states of the Indian Ocean – Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka – in a move designed to further...
The three-yearly election to the Senate, which had filled the air with revelations of corruption and vote-buying, ended somewhat tamely last week with a flurry of self-congratulatory verbiage...
Seven months after India abruptly called off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan in a huff over a meeting of the Pakistan high commissioner in Delhi with leaders of the Kashmir freedom...
Last week the Nawaz government announced two proposals which if adopted would practically complete the transformation of the Senate from an elected chamber representing the constituent units of the...
In my article last week , I suggested that in countering the ambitions of the Group of Four countries, to get permanent seats on the UN Security Council, Pakistan could do no better than to point...
Perhaps the greatest asset of the United Nations today, deeply flawed as its working and structure is in many ways, is the universality of its membership. It is the only forum in which states...
Until recently, the word Indo-Pacific was hardly known, except as a term used in marine biology to describe the tropical regions of the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a fish habitat. Now it is on the...
The statement issued by Sartaj Aziz last Tuesday on Obama’s visit to India was designed in part to reassure the public that the government is alive to the challenges posed by the expanding...
In about six weeks, elections will be held to fill half the seats in the Senate that are being vacated by members who will be retiring on March 11 after completing their six-year term. But the...
It is no secret that Indian authorities and many of the country’s politicians have long harboured secret and not-so-secret designs of converting the Muslim majority of occupied Jammu and Kashmir...
Speaking at a press conference on January 3, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said that the proposal to set up military courts for speedy trial of terrorists, which parliament formally approved...
At a press conference in Lahore on December 11, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal asked Imran to send his party’s representatives to the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms which was set up...
