Pakistan

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on November 30th, 2011
Pakistanis have staged anti-NATO protests across the country in recent days. [Photo: EPA]

The attack toook place in the dead of the night, and for more than two hours, American helicopters pounded a well-known and marked Pakistani post.

The Pakistani army frantically tried to convey to NATO, ISAF and the US high command in Afghanistan to stop the attack, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. By the time it was over, more than 24 soldiers lay dead, including officers, and over a dozen wounded.

The Pakistani post, known as Volcano, was where the two sides held their flag meetings.

By Imran Khan in Asia on November 19th, 2011
The government feared a military coup by Pakistan's senior military and intelligence leadership [Getty]

He has been described as a "seasoned operator" and Pakistan's best captain for the treacherous political playing field that is diplomacy in Washington. But Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, used the social media site Twitter a few hours ago to say that he was "Heading back to the motherland".
 
At the time of writing, it's unclear whether he is in fact on his way to Pakistan. Some suggest his wife has fled the country for fear that he would be arrested on his return.
 
The country he flies into is baying for his blood. Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was quoted in local media saying: “This issue won't get resolved by somebody's resignation. It constitutes a treason charge."
 
Treason is a big word. Haqqani is under fire for allegedly helping a Pakistani-American businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, to secretly convey to the then top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, a plea.

By Imran Khan in Asia on September 25th, 2011
Photo by EPA

Like all great lovers' tiffs, this one started with frustration. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, decided to make his feelings public.

In a nutshell, he accused Pakistan of state sponsored terrorism, alleging that its Inter-Services Intelligence backs the Haqqani network. The Haqqanis are a fearsome bunch of fighters whose lineage goes back to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Back then, their leader, Jalaludin Haqqani, was seen as a hero, even sitting in the White House with the then President Ronald Reagan. But it wasn't just the US. The Pakistanis nurtured and encouraged him to go fight in Afghanistan, supplying him with weapons and safe havens.

That was 20 years ago and, like all bad marriages, things left unresolved often explode.

By Imran Khan in Asia on September 8th, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

Tahira is typical of many people in Pakistan's urban middle class. She is a successful businesswoman with a loving family. She remembers the day those planes struck at the heart of America, but not like many in the West.

"It wasn't a life changing moment; I can't remember exactly where I was or what I was doing. My husband called me and I switched on the television. I remember thinking it was sad, but not much else. What I didn't know was how our lives would change."

Tahira spoke to me in her garden in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, exactly a year ago. I had made a comment on the barriers that had appeared on her street, and she just sighed. "When 9/11 happened I thought that it had nothing to do with us, they were blaming an Arab living in Afghanistan, not a Pakistani living here, but look at our lives now... We live like prisoners in our own home, nervous of anyone we don't know."

By Kristen Saloomey in Americas on August 1st, 2011
Aspen, Colorado. [Photo: Glenn Gabel]

 All tension with Pakistan aside, the US shows no sign of stopping its use of unmanned drones to kill al-Qaeda members in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

 Top national security officials fled the steamy debt debate in DC to take part in the Aspen Security Forum in cool Colorado last week, but they couldn’t escape the growing controversy.

Cradled amid Aspen’s pine-covered peaks and the Washington elite, with the soothing sounds of the Roaring Fork River as a backdrop, their talk was unusually frank.

Douglas Lute, President Barack Obama’s top advisoe on Pakistan, said his plan was to increase covert action in the tribal areas to take advantage of al-Qaeda’s disarray following the death of Osama Bin Laden.

By Imran Khan in Asia on May 19th, 2011
Photo by AFP

It was a telling statement. On Wednesday, the US defence secretary Robert M Gates said there was no evidence that anyone In Pakistan's senior leadership knew that Osama bin Laden was hiding in the garrison city of Abbottabad.

He quickly followed it up, however, with his own theory: "Somebody did know".

That is now the question that is doing the rounds - from Washington to Islamabad via almost every foreign office in the world. In Pakistan, senior military commanders are said to be embarrassed by the whole situation. Speaking on deep background, one army official said simply that the Pakistani military leadership was in crisis mode.

That theory was seemingly confirmed by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Admiral Mike Mullen who on Wednesday said the Pakistani army was in soul-searching mode.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on May 12th, 2011

Within years after Russian forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the US and Saudi Arabia sent in billions of dollars to help the mujahideen, or holy warriors, in their uphill struggle against Russian forces. As the battles for control of Afghanistan got under way, thousands of Arab and other foreign volunteers made a beeline for Pakistan to join the Afghan mujahideen and cross into Afghanistan to wage jihad against the brutal occupation of Afghanistan.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on February 28th, 2011

 

Even at the best of times, Pakistan-US relations have been marred by mistrust.

Historically, the United States has gravitated towards Pakistan when it has needed to in terms of its strategic interests. In the late 1950’s, for example, the US not only supported a military dictator (General Ayub Khan)  but also operated airbases inside Pakistan to be used against the growing military power of the Russia. 

In 1962 a U2 long range reconnaissance aircraft took off from Badaber, on the outskirts of Peshawar, for a spying mission over Russia. The plane was due to fly all the way to Norway, but was shot down by the Russians, who then triumphantly put the pilot, Gary Powers, on display to the world.

By Azad Essa in Asia on February 19th, 2011
Photo by AFP

It is being described as the most open World Cup in the competition’s short history. While the last four tournaments always began with the fair speculation on who would face Australia in the final, this year’s tournament has no clear favourite.

The current edition of the tournament is really a three-way throng of a race between South Africa, India and Australia.

Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka are the dark horses of the tournament.

Of course, if you had to put money on one team – as in – if you were hung upside down, a gun placed to your head and forced to make a bet – Team India would probably be your best option.  

By Rahul Pathak in Asia on February 6th, 2011
Photo from GALLO GETTY

Over 50 hours of testimony and argument, thousands of documents, countless witnesses. The sum total? A minimum five year ban for three Pakistan players convicted of corruption.

Was this the strong message the International Cricket Council (ICC) wanted to send out?

Speaking on Sunday the ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said:

Corruption in our game will never be tolerated and, once again, I reiterate our zero-tolerance approach.

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