So you think you know everything about Pakistan?
13 years, 10 months ago

So you think you know everything about Pakistan?

Hindustan Times  

Pakistan: A Hard Country Anatol Lieven Allen Lane Rs599 n pp 576 HT Image Even before the country’s creation in 1947, some were predicting the collapse and breakup of Pakistan. In the words of the writer Nadeem F Paracha: “What was once the lunatic fringe has now become the country’s new mainstream.” When Lieven visited Broomfield Hall, “the school of the local elite” in Multan in 2009, he found conspiracy theories were the stuff of life. In the view of almost all the students, “It has been proved that the Jews were responsible for 9/11; that a Jewish conspiracy exists to dominate the world; that the US has occupied Afghanistan in order to invade Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia, and so on.” Pakistan is today engaged in a psychological civil war. As the newspaper Dawn revealed recently, US drone attacks have killed less than 2,000 people — many of them militants — while attacks by Islamist terrorists inside Pakistan have killed an estimated 34,000 citizens since 2004.

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History of this topic

Frankenstein’s monster: How Pakistan handcrafted its own biggest internal security threats
1 week, 6 days ago

Frankenstein’s monster: How Pakistan handcrafted its own biggest internal security threats

Firstpost  

From Balochistan’s insurgency to Islamist terrorism to political turmoil, Pakistan’s ruling elite has repeatedly built its own threats through policies of suppression, militarisation, and political manipulation The recent hijacking of the Jaffar Express, en route from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army has garnered widespread media attention. The Balochistan insurgency Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most resource-rich …

With Trump looming, Pakistan braces for foreign policy challenges in 2025
Trending News
2 months, 2 weeks ago

With Trump looming, Pakistan braces for foreign policy challenges in 2025

Al Jazeera  

Analysts predict a tough year, as Islamabad prepares for more US belligerence towards China, the closest Pakistan ally. “Pakistan must skillfully navigate mounting pressure from Beijing for a ‘Joint Security Mechanism’, essentially putting Chinese security personnel on Pakistani territory which, in turn, would make them the target of militants complicating existing security measures,” Faisal told Al Jazeera. Hassan Abbas, professor …

What to read about Pakistan
1 year, 1 month ago

What to read about Pakistan

The Economist  

A S PAKISTAN HEADS for a parliamentary election on February 8th the country has rarely been in such a mess. In January Pakistan exchanged missile fire with Iran; both sides say they were aiming at militants based in the other’s territory. Hopes that the toppling of Pakistan’s last military dictator—Pervez Musharraf—in 2008 would lead to a steady strengthening of democracy …

10 reasons why a weak, crumbling Pakistan is good for India
1 year, 10 months ago

10 reasons why a weak, crumbling Pakistan is good for India

Firstpost  

One of the most abiding myths about this region’s politics is that a weak Pakistan is bad for India. Then under the Islamist General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq — a period of relative political strength and prosperity — Pakistan carried out the most extensive radicalisation project, funding terrorism and putting in motion the doctrine of ‘bleeding India with a thousand cuts’. A …

India Sub-Continent Survey: Amid Crises, Pakistan Needs Its Moment of Reckoning
1 year, 10 months ago

India Sub-Continent Survey: Amid Crises, Pakistan Needs Its Moment of Reckoning

The Quint  

Going by conventional wisdom, Pakistan is yet neither a “basket case” of economically bankrupt, nor politically a “failed state”. Countries with worse economic crises than Pakistan have staged remarkable turnarounds. And similarly, with functional institutions still intact, Pakistan is not remotely in a situation that confronts countries like Syria, Yemen, or even Venezuela. The ambitious survey was planned and executed …

Pakistan is Irrelevant to India’s Rise - News18
1 year, 11 months ago

Pakistan is Irrelevant to India’s Rise - News18

News 18  

The Pakistan economy is caught in a death spiral, coming out of which is no longer possible with the traditional tools of living on the dole from ‘friendly’ countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The good news for Pakistan is that some Pakistanis – a few sensible ones – have increasingly been talking of the need …

Brutal calamity should draw our sympathy but there is no space for a bleeding-heart strategy on Pakistan
2 years, 6 months ago

Brutal calamity should draw our sympathy but there is no space for a bleeding-heart strategy on Pakistan

Firstpost  

The catastrophic floods in Pakistan have led some Indians to suggest that New Delhi should take the initiative to mend fences, fix the current bilateral “impasse and resume dialogue”. Pakistan’s finance minister, Wharton-graduate economist Miftah Ismail who wants the nation to “live within its means” told local media last month that Pakistan is mulling importing vegetables and other essential edible …

3 Myths About ‘Un-Governable’ Pakistan
3 years, 2 months ago

3 Myths About ‘Un-Governable’ Pakistan

The Diplomat  

Pakistan needs to be saved from those that rule it, and especially from those want to rule it forever. Myth #1: Pakistan is Impossible to Govern: For decades, Pakistan’s ruling elite has justified its poor performance by claiming that it is a country that is hard to govern and whose people are “jaahil”. “It is not us but you,” is …

We must think beyond rivalling Pakistan
6 years ago

We must think beyond rivalling Pakistan

Deccan Chronicle  

I am apparently one of the few Indians not excited or moved by the events of last week. If we were able to get our act together in our home, particularly in Kashmir, whatever else their government would do to us would not affect our country in the way that it has. Under Narendra Modi’s hard rule in Kashmir, the …

Pakistan is a terror state: Sanctions won't work as long as it enjoys support from China
8 years, 6 months ago

Pakistan is a terror state: Sanctions won't work as long as it enjoys support from China

Firstpost  

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s address to the United Nations on Monday was candid and categorical about Pakistan belonging to a group of nations “that still speak the language of terrorism, that nurture it, peddle it, and export it.” However, many in India, including the principal opposition Congress party, are disappointed that she, or for that matter the Modi government, …

What is India's Pakistan policy?
8 years, 11 months ago

What is India's Pakistan policy?

Deccan Chronicle  

Respected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji, I write this open letter to you with humility and great respect. In the light of such incendiary comments made publicly and repeatedly, it was indeed brave of you to invite Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, along with other Saarc leaders, for your oath taking ceremony. In June 2015, our respected external affairs minister …

Pakistan behind rise of international jihadi forces: NYT
9 years, 1 month ago

Pakistan behind rise of international jihadi forces: NYT

The Hindu  

Pakistan’s powerful intelligence service has long acted as the “manager” of international jihadi forces and it may have been involved in the rise of the ISIS, a leading U.S. daily on Sunday said, in a stinging commentary on Pakistan’s “intervention” in a number of foreign conflicts. Pakistan is intervening in a number of foreign conflicts.” “Its intelligence service has long …

View from Pakistan: The history wars
9 years, 4 months ago

View from Pakistan: The history wars

Deccan Chronicle  

Karachi: It is not news that the ascent of Narendra Modi has marked a change in India’s outlook on its past. It is no surprise, then, that the effort to rewrite Indian history, such that it fits better with a narrative of Hindu supremacy, has spread into India’s academia. In his address, head of the department, Ramesh Bhardwaj, said, “The …

Pak is a needless distraction: China is the real enemy
12 years, 2 months ago

Pak is a needless distraction: China is the real enemy

Firstpost  

Indians must not waste time in obsessing with Pakistan. Inspite of being a smaller country we have humiliated you so badly yet you want to be friends with us.” “We supported the Khalistani movement, jehad in Kashmir, the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Kargil, the Kandhahar Indian Airlines hijack, the 2001 attack on Parliament, the Godhra burnings, the 2002 Akshardham Temple attack, …

India and Pakistan: The truth of the one nation theory
12 years, 11 months ago

India and Pakistan: The truth of the one nation theory

Firstpost  

It is difficult to find a country whose people are more filthy than those in India and Pakistan. I think my host told me the Japanese had built one or both of them, and those airports were a very different thing from the ones I had just taken off from in India. We produce very little of meaning to the …

Some sticks yet more carrots for Pakistan
13 years, 10 months ago

Some sticks yet more carrots for Pakistan

The Hindu  

For the United States, Pakistan poses a particularly difficult challenge. According to classified U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden of his fear that the Pakistani military might “take me out.” And the United Arab Emirates' Foreign Minister told U.S. special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke in early 2010 that Mr. …

Let’s bombard Pakistan
15 years, 5 months ago

Let’s bombard Pakistan

Times of India  

A former associate editor with the Times of India, Jug Suraiya writes two regular columns for the print edition, Jugular Vein, which appears every Friday, and Second Opinion, which appears on Wednesdays. The offer by the Taliban — which the Pakistani army is supposedly combating — that it would side with the armed forces in a war against India by …

Way out for Pakistan
19 years, 1 month ago

Way out for Pakistan

Hindustan Times  

According to Lt Colonel Syed Iqbal Ahmed, author of the book, Balochistan: Its startegic importance, Balochistan is a link between South Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia. Ahmed says Balochistan is vital to Pakistan; and its loss would jeopardise the regional security arrangements with reverberations and aberrations beyond the limits of the Indian ocean. "Pakistan should strive to create …

Pakistan's time of reckoning
23 years, 2 months ago

Pakistan's time of reckoning

The Hindu  

While warning his country of the scope of the crisis it faced in the aftermath of September 11, Musharraf had perhaps realised that the involvement in Afghanistan of Pakistan's Army and intelligence services and also the Islamicists based in Pakistan was too deep for the U.S. to treat the country simply as a long-term ally. With that would disappear not …

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