The launch of the first-ever direct train service from Delhi to Kashmir would be a big turning point in the Valley's mood and its integration with India. He had to thwart it at any cost, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The Bilawal Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party which won the third largest number of seats in the National Assembly in the elections appears to be split on whether to join a coalition government or sit on Opposition benches.
Clearly, her father hopes that a successful tenure in Lahore will give Maryam the ballast to be prime minister after the next general election.
Shehbaz, 72, who was the consensus candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), received 201 votes, 32 more than what was required to become leader of the House in the 336-member Parliament.
'He's charismatic, a populist, very popular, and indeed a cult of personality.' 'That ensures a powerful reaction from his support base -- even if it's not sustained, it will be quite intense, and that's worrisome for stability.'
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday launched the Pakistan People's Party's election campaign in a low-key manner, invoking the legacy of the Bhutto family and calling on people to back the party in the May 11 election. Addressing a gathering of hundreds of PPP leaders and workers in the Bhutto family's traditional stronghold of Naudero in Sindh province, Bilawal listed the achievements of his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Zia confessed his admiration for Mangeshkar while talking with late Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar in 1982.
While all minorities in Pakistan are under threat, the country has turned as an inferno especially for Ahmadi minorities and either converting their religion or quitting the country seems the only way of their survival.
Nusrat Bhutto, the widow of former Pakistani president Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the mother of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, on Sunday died in Dubai following a prolonged illness.
Pakistan's Law minister Babar Awan resigned on Wednesday to appear as the government's counsel in a case in the Supreme Court seeking a review of the death sentence awarded to former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. President Asif Ali Zardari, who also heads the ruling Pakistan People's Party, recently asked the apex court to review the death sentence awarded to Bhutto in 1979.
All the behind the scenes drama and the between the lines intrigue from Pakistan, a day before the presidential poll.
An uncompromising champion of democracy and a moderate face of Islam, Benazir Bhutto's death in a suicide attack on Thursday, brought a gory end to her volatile political career spanning over two decades.
The seeds for the family's brush with tragedy were sown when Benazir's father and former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979. Bhutto's end came after worldwide appeals for clemency were dismissed by the then acting President Gen Zia ul Haq.
'Khrushchev, of course, abused Bhutto and said should Pakistan look towards India or Afghanistan, the Soviets would take our eyes out,' said a noting made by Ayub Khan.
Pakistan is going through a very critical time today. It needs reconciliation not only between some individuals but also between political parties having adverse views.
'They were doing something... they would not want me to call a meeting of the scientists because I would find out.' Benazir Bhutto, in an exclusive interview.
'Not only a stockpile but bomb components existed and it was only a question that we put them together or did \n\n not put them together.' Benazir Bhutto, in an exclusive interview.
'I saw this as an attempt to embarrass me by suggesting that I was a security threat.' Benazir Bhutto, in an \n\nexclusive interview.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 'Gen-Next' politician of Pakistan, has said that his Pakistan People's Party would get back entire Kashmir from India.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chief of Pakistan People's Party, on Monday said that the vexed issue of Kashmir was the root cause of hostility between India and Pakistan.
Days after he vowed that Pakistan will take back entire Kashmir, the country's 'Gen Next' politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying Pakistan can retaliate "unlike his victims from Gujarat".
Chinese companies have large interests and investments in the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
Musharraf claimed that Nawaz Sharif's India policy was a "total sell out".
'Many senior officers are unhappy with him, but many lower level officers are still supportive.' 'This is also not something that has happened for a long time. So this is certainly a milestone.'
Brigadier Usman Khalid also persuaded the doctor to conduct a fake polio campaign, which led to the terrorist's assassination.
December 3, 2021 marks 50 years since the beginning of the 1971 War which ended in a decisive military victory for India and the liberation of Bangladesh. Most analysts of the 1971 War agree that the IV Corps dash across the mighty Meghna river led by the brilliant General Sagat Singh was the turning point in the war, recalls military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
During a war, there are just four possibilities a soldier faces. One: Victorious and safe. Two: Wounded. Three: Killed in action. Four: Prisoner of War. It was my fate to face the fourth, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) on the year spent as a prisoner of war in Pakistan during the 1971 War.
It is time we pre-empt Pakistan and the separatists by fast tracking normalcy, advises Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'New Delhi feels that given the internal dynamics in Pakistan and the overwhelming powers wielded by the army, one will have to wait for better times to see any meaningful progress in the India-Pakistan relationship,' says Ambassador G Parthasarthy.
Unless each attack drone can be neutralised, India will be literally deploying elephants to stamp out ants -- and the ants may still survive! points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'According to me, her finest hour was in 1983-1984 when she neutralised a combined US-Pakistan-British conspiracy to Balkanise India by creating an independent Sikh State of Khalistan,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). A special assessment of Indira Gandhi on her centenary.
What the ceasefire does is to show the supporters of violence in the Kashmir valley an alternative to militancy, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'There are thousand ways to pressure Pakistan to make it behave.' 'Going to the ICJ was the worst possible option,' says Colonel Anil A Athale.
'What is required is to make Pakistan less war-like and more modest in its ambitions. To normalise with India and to reduce the State's fondness for religion.' 'It is pragmatism and not charisma that it required and it is by being boring and not heroic that this can be achieved.' 'This is the moment of realisation which brings the Pakistani leader into conflict with the army.' 'Imran Khan will learn the lesson in time,' says Aakar Patel.
As the country readies to go to polls on July 25, one can't deny the role of the military, but there are other factors too.
'Will this surgical strike of ours put an end to Pakistani terror?' 'And if not, what will we do when the next terror strike happens?' 'Will there be another surgical strike or will we have to do something bigger?' 'How big does it have to be to get Pakistan to totally stop?'
The Pakistani election on July 25 has a strong Indian flavour and connection, says Vivek Shukla.
'The travesty of recent Indian strategic thought is it emerges not from our brains, but from whatever part of the anatomy that secretes the prickliest hormones,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'India can replicate what Pakistan did to Kulbhushan Jadhav should the need arise.' 'Hopefully, Pakistan will see reason before that transpires,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, former high commissioner to Pakistan.
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