Kerry-Karzai marathon talks on Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), also known as Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), fizzled out after raising high hopes a day earlier. Americans want to extract maximum concessions from the outgoing Afghan president. Afghanistan side is careful, and thus is in no hurry. “I believe Karzai wants the BSA, but he doesn’t…
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the UNGA came as a disappointment for all those wishing to re-rail the peace process between Pakistan and India. It was an anticlimax of the peace overtures extended by Pakistan’s Prime Minister since his assumption of office in June. Contents of Manmohan’s hubris clad utterances indeed left a bad…
IntroductionAs a commanding officer of 14 Punjab I had participated fully in the September 1965 War in CHAMB-JAURIAN Sector and SIALKOT Sector. I am narrating below a few events based on my memory and personal diary for the interest of our learned readers. Operation GRAND SLAMBetween 15 and 22 August the overwhelming forces of the…
War is a constant feature of human history and often peace is described as intervening period between successive wars. Although all wars are destructive to life and property, the Napoleonic wars (1803-1815), World War I (1914-19) and World War II (1939-1945) are considered to be the major or total wars. These wars were ‘waged between…
Gap between Pakistan’s state policy and public aspirations in the context of Pak-US relations is quite wide. Moreover, public sentiment is hostile about the areas of divergence, and indifferent regarding areas of convergence. Most important issue that America and Pakistan are conjointly seized with at the moment is post 2014 Afghanistan. And this is the…
In the past decades, PAF aviators have regularly taken off for assigned duties – both combat and routine – with the knowledge that, if they bailed out, especially in hostile territory, their comrades would not hesitate to risk their own lives in an effort to rescue them. PAF has ample experiences of its own from…
Pakistan’s security objective places a heavy requirement on maintaining a consistent level of defense spending. The newly elected government will have a lot on its plate when dealing with the budgetary and the financial condition of the economy of the country. Presently the economy is on life-support even if all the indicators are turned around…
Despite fears of disruption and cancellation, General Elections in Pakistan has finally taken place as scheduled on 11 May 2013. Yes, there were sporadic violence, reports of vote tampering and attempts to disrupt the polls through use of force but in the given charged environment the domestic and international verdict initially was that these have…
Drone is a milder terminology used for the ‘Unarmed Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) being employed by the CIA and other clandestine troops on behalf of American Department of Defence. One wonders whether this class of undeclared combatants are covered by the UN mandate that authorised the use of military force in Afghanistan. Surely, there is…
Iron Dome is the latest and smallest of Israel’s anti missile systems, also known as Iron Cap. It is a mobile all-weather air defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., in conjunction with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Designed to intercept incoming rockets, long-range artillery fired from distances of 4 to 70 kilometers…
