The slow lethargic response of the government in the Surjeet-Sarabjit drama and the hyper, superfast response of the media can make for a lethal dose in India-Pakistan relations, says Seema Mustafa
There is a growing feeling within that country that these might provide a fresh start by bringing a new, and perhaps less corrupt and more responsive, government to power, says Seema Mustafa
Those in Pakistan who always preceded the possibility of talks with a 'Kashmir being the core issue' argument are now insisting that dialogue is the only way to peace, and both countries should work together to ensure all around stability and peace, says Seema Mustafa.
Unfortunately the new trends in Pakistan are going unnoticed by the myopic strategic establishment of India, and if television news channels are anything to go by, the Indian perspective of Pakistan is stuck in decades past, notes Seema Mustafa.
'It was impossible for bin Laden to live in the luxurious building with a huge compound in Abbotabad without the knowledge of the Inter Services Intelligence or the Pakistan military.'
India and Pakistan that will not tolerate a sneeze from the other side without opening the entire paraphernalia of forensic science, stand like dummies when the US manipulates both at will, says Seema Mustafa.
Seema Mustafa on how Pakistan voted for change this time in the hope that the new government will do what it is supposed to do govern.
Seema Mustafa believes that Pakistan Army chief Ashfaq Kayani would not march his troops into Islamabad for it would only play to the advantage of an unpopular Yousaf Raza Gilani's government.
Several Pakistani nationals visiting India started returning home through the Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar on Thursday, a day after the Centre set a 48-hour deadline for them to leave the country. The decision came after India announced a raft of measures, including the expulsion of Pakistani military attaches, suspension of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960, and the immediate shutting down of the Attari land-transit post in view of the cross-border links to the horrific terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians on Tuesday.
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Both India and China have demonstrated levels of maturity in diffusing tensions and ensuring that the border remains by and large incident free, says Seema Mustafa
The conservative bureaucracy that influences the political masters is clearly not concerned with the vision documents prepared by defence chiefs to bring India's military into a state of preparedness, says Seema Mustafa
A very delayed and subdued reaction, at a time when the non-aligned world had expected a big country like India to come out in support of rights and justice. It was yet another example of the mealy mouthed approach that has come to define Indian foreign policy, says Seema Mustafa.
Prem Panicker, on the Rediff chat, delves on what went wrong for Team India and what to expect from Sunday's trans-Tasman World Cup final.
