Iran‘s growing influence in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003 has been cause for enormous concern for many in the Middle East and beyond. But a growing economic rivalry between Tehran and Baghdad has attracted little attention. Read Here – The National
Iran’s strategic ambitions are not limited to looking West into the Arab world and the war in Syria. It is also looking East, where it has an active alliance with China and a working relationship with India, but closer to its borders, Iran is working hard to build its influence in Afghanistan. Read Here – […]
Today, judges in Pakistan seem to be more powerful than military generals, who are apparently no more the “movers and shakers” in domestic politics. Under Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, over the past three years, the court has become powerful enough to challenge a sitting prime minister. Last year, the court disqualified and removed former prime […]
This week, the judges of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal have issued yet more guilty verdicts against leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party for crimes committed during the country’s war of independence in 1971. Underscoring this energy are new prosecutions against foreign nationals of Bangladeshi origin who are effectively being tried in absentia. As elections are on the horizon for Bangladesh, it […]
In a report released last week by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Pakistan was pinpointed as “one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, not far from being classified, ‘water-scarce’.” As water demand exceeds supply in the South Asian country, more and more water is being withdrawn from the nation’s reservoirs, leaving them in a critically […]
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan‘s new prime minister, has already made clear that, unlike his predecessors, he won’t tacitly endorse the United States’ current counterterrorism operations. That leaves Washington with one option: finding some way to cooperate with Islamabad on drone strikes without diminishing their effectiveness. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
Pakistan‘s military response to the raid that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on the night of May 1, 2011, was entirely inadequate, a leaked government report has charged. Furthermore, due to “outdated” defence procedures and an overall defence “policy bankruptcy”, the country remains vulnerable to such raids in the future, says the Abbottabad Commission […]
Trade is not a cure-all for grinding poverty, but a free-trade deal between Pakistan and India would help foster economic growth and regional peace. And the political timing has never been better. Pakistan‘s new Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, should seize the moment. Read Here – Christian Science Monitor
The Abbottabad (Osama bin Laden) Commission has concluded that the global terror kingpin’s nine-year-long stay in Pakistan and the May 2011 secret US raid, in which he was killed, were because of “gross incompetence” of the state institutions, but was particularly critical of ISI for being too casual in first tracking him and then investigating the May […]
General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military strongman and once Washington’s trusted ally in the war on terror, may soon be prosecuted, the first time in the country’s history that a former army chief will face legal action for violating the constitution and tampering with its democratic institutions. Read Here – The Hindu
looking beyond borders 