I wrote before that – Future political integration is dependent on ASEAN resolving its many territorial disputes. There is still a high level of nationalism in the region; member-countries are suspicious of each other due to centuries of conflict, followed by colonial isolation. These disputes were recently surveyed on Capital Hill, by Richard P. Cronin, […]
Latest sources tell us that unmanned CIA predator aircraft are credited with killing Osama bin Laden’s son with strikes in Pakistan earlier this year. Although this has yet to be officially confirmed given the highly “sensitive nature of CIA operations along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier” according to the Washington Post, debate on the use of unmanned […]
Even as the governments of India and Pakistan struggle to re-establish regular dialogue between the two countries, the Pakistani Army and Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) are reported to want a seat at the table. The two agencies claim to be the real power centers in Pakistan who play a crucial role in Pakistan’s India policy. They […]
Lately, the news coming out of Timor-Leste is quite reminiscent of the political reality drama, that was Ferdinand Marcos’ Philippines – corruption, assassination plots, and intrigue in abundance. On Monday July 13th, the 27 people accused of the February 2008 “assassination attempt” of East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta, began trial. The case is a puzzling […]
“Pakistan Objects to U.S. Plan for Afghanistan War” reads a New York Times article yesterday updating us on our foreign policy. The article forewarns of “fissures” in the U.S. Pakistan alliance at this critical moment when President Obama sends additional troops to the region. The article specifically outlines Pakistan’s insistence on maintaining forces along the […]
Human Rights Come to ASEAN? On Monday, in Phuket, Thailand, ASEAN laid out plans to formally adopt the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AIGCHR) at its regional meeting in October of this year. The commission will have a mandate for greater human rights education, information dissemination, and inter-regional capacity building. It will be be […]
It seems that President Zardari has finally had enough about the power shortage in the country. He has decided to get directly involved in the struggle to have the crisis of power cuts and load-shedding (load means electric load on the grids and shedding means of course to lessen the burden on the system that […]
There is a new controversy brewing in Pakistan about the local governments. Musharraf government had introduced a system under which local body elections were held and Nazims (a Nazim is like a mayor) were directly elected. However, the problem is that Nazims had very little authority to begin with and now that the current government, […]
A positive week for U.S. Pakistani Relations
-AP has published more on the Indonesia Hotel Bombing suspect, Malaysian born, Noordin Mohammad Top. The U.S. State Department believes he aided in financing the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings. After becoming radicalized in an Islamic boarding school ran by the Indonesian Muslim cleric, Abdullah Sungkar, he underwent training in the Southern Philippines and joined […]
According to a report in Dawn, Pakistan government has lost billions in revenue because of the chaos that was caused by rain in Karachi. This is not good news. There is no question that this rain in Karachi broke all records, at least for the last 30 years, but the response from those who were […]
A lot is being said in the Indian media about the inclusion of Balochistan in the India-Pakistan joint statement at Sharm el-Sheikh. [ link, link] Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is accused of giving Pakistan the upper hand by making Balochistan a bilateral problem, instead of the internal problem that it is. The Pakistani Prime Minister’s […]
Popular from Press
