Author: Fozhan Baig

A Muslim mob stormed a police station and destroyed parked police vehicles in northwestern Pakistan, Madyan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. As reported by AP, the mob seized a man detained there and lynched him on accusations of desecrating the Quran on Thursday, according to local police official Rahim Ullah. Mohammad Ismail, a tourist staying at a hotel in Madyan town, became the target of locals who accused him of blasphemy. Police officers reportedly took Ismail to the station to safeguard him, but a growing mob pursued them. The mob proceeded to storm the station, seize Ismail, brutally assault him to death, and…

It is as old and venerable as Rome, the eternal city, and Athens, the city of wisdom, yet Samarkand, the pearl of the Muslim world, draws only a fraction of the attention that those two capitals do. Indeed, while most people know that Rome is in Italy and Athens is in Greece, few would have even heard of Samarkand, let alone know that it is in Uzbekistan. That very anonymity, largely a result of being all but ignored by the world’s travelers, may be what is helping fuel a surge of Chinese tourists to the countries of Central Asia, where…

BBC Urdu, in an extensive report published on Tuesday, claimed that Pakistan entered into a $364 million arms sales agreement with two private US companies last year. These weapons were allegedly sent to Ukraine for its war with Russia. The Russia-Ukraine crisis began last year when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the latter’s invasion on February 24. The Foreign Office has denied any sale of arms and ammunition to Ukraine, saying that Pakistan maintained a policy of “strict neutrality” in the dispute between the two countries and did not provide them with any arms or ammunition in that context. It must be noted that these alleged…

LAHORE: Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said he was ousted from the government in 1999 by (late) Gen Pervez Musharraf for opposing the Kargilmisadventure, as he underlined the importance of having good relations with India and other neighbours. The three-time prime minister questioned why he was ousted from the office of the prime minister prematurely. “I should be told why I was ousted in 1993 and 1999. When I opposed the Kargil plan saying it should not happen… I was ousted (by Gen Pervez Musharraf). And later what I said proved right,” Sharif said here while talking to the aspirants of…

Mumbai: India’s unemployment rate is at a record low and the country’s labour market is undergoing a structural transformation, a report said on Tuesday. In the new report, the economists at the country’s largest lender SBI also pitched for a “reinterpretation of old fashioned rhetoric” while looking at a subject like employment. “India’s unemployment rate is at a record low, India’s labour market is undergoing a deep structural transformation with self-entrepreneurship across all echelons and higher educational attainment emerging as key enablers,” the report said. It rued that the jump in self-employed populace within the employment estimates (57.3 per cent in…

A Growing number of countries are rolling out their national security policies. Pakistan joined the list last year, a step ahead of India. While this document breaks the mould of Pakistan’s usual security roadmaps in many ways, one of the most interesting things about it is what it says about the Indian Ocean— specifically its name. But first, let’s understand the crucial role of national security doctrines, where India currently stands on this front, and some of the most remarkable features of Pakistan’s document. Why national security policies matter All five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)—…

From November 2 to 3, the Asia Economic Community Forum (AECF) took place in Incheon, South Korea. At this forum, which is aimed at enhancing cooperation among Asian countries, a special session hosted by the Taejae Future Consensus Institute drew considerable attention. The session, titled “Nuclear Arms Race and Emerging Security Challenges: Is U.S.-China Cooperation on Nuclear Disarmament Feasible?” featured representatives from the United States, China, and South Korea engaging in discussions. While South Korea has been grappling with determining its diplomatic stance amid the China-U.S. competition and strategizing how to induce North Korea’s denuclearization, the escalating rivalry between the United States…

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is currently in Pakistan for the highly anticipated first scheduled Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) staff review. This review is important, as it will determine whether Pakistan has been successful in bridging the $6.5 billion external financing gap agreed upon with the IMF. In July, the IMF approved a nine-month standby arrangement for Pakistan under which it provided it with a substantial amount of $3 billion. The first loan tranche of $1.2 billion has already been disbursed to Islamabad, showcasing the IMF’s confidence in Pakistan’s ability to meet its financial commitments. With this positive start, it is widely…

ISLAMABAD – SOME two weeks back, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), a 23-member inter-governmental organisation, held its annual meeting in Colombo. Pakistan has been intentionally kept out of this forum despite having a 1,046-kilometre-long coastline along the Arabian Sea and being a major state of the Indian Ocean Region. For its part, Pakistan has also not made a serious attempt to get its foot in the door. Like the rest of South Asia that has been the most affected by the climate storm, Pakistan, which in particular has been in the throes of a serious existential threat (the Himalayas have…

Islamabad/London: Cash-strapped Pakistan reportedly earned USD 364 million in an arms deal with two private US companies last year to supply ammunition to Ukraine in its war with Russia, according to a media report. A British military cargo plane flew from Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan in Rawalpindi to the British military base in Cyprus, Akrotiri, and then to Romania a total of five times to supply arms to the war-torn country, the BBC Urdu reported on Monday. Islamabad has, however, consistently denied that it has provided any ammunition to Ukraine, a neighbouring country to Romania. Citing details of the…