Pakistan is once again courting an unpredictable ally. Pakistan-US relationship is historic, enduring and wide-ranging yet it has always had an underlying roller coaster signature tune that has an inbuilt undercutting as well as self-healing mechanism. Prime Minister Imran Khan visited United States from 21st to 23rd of July. He held talks with US President…
Context The three-day visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the US was a significant icebreaking moment for the otherwise downward spiraling US-Pakistan ties. Aside from the positive optics, the broader implications remain vague. The Afghan peace process was supposed to be the focus of the meetings, however, President Trump’s comment on Kashmir has opened…
All of Imran Khan’s trips abroad as PM has been of great importance to Pakistan. The most anticipated (and more important than others) was his 3-day trip of the United States (US). Primarily Pakistan badly needed to mend fences with the US on a number of thorny issues, secondarily we had to attract very much…
The ‘established’ political parties of Pakistan today have mainly dynastical family rule like that of Z.A. Bhutto, his descendants (and opportunistic adherents through marriage like Asif Zardari), that of Maulana Mufti Mahmood, Baccha Khan’s family and more lately of Nawaz Sharif’s, feudal to the core. The exceptions were Jamaat-e-Islam (JI) and the MQM. The MQM…
Having stabilized somewhat after a rather rocky start the PTI government and PM Imran Khan seem set on their attempt to steer course towards real change, with across-the-board accountability the central plank of their campaign. The dire economic situation shows some signs of hope: With 2.1 million people filing their tax returns, the highest in…
‘Being a friend of the United States was like living on the banks of a great river. The soil is wonderfully fertile, but every four or eight years the river changes course, and you may find yourself alone in a desert’. General Muhammad Zia ul Haq to William Casey 1983 quoted in John E. Persico’s…
It remains unclear if BJP can scrap the special status Kashmir has enjoyed for over fifty years by deleting articles 35A and 370 from the Indian Constitution and if so, can such fundamental change legally be introduced into the basic Law of the Land by just a Presidential Order without a vote in favour by…
