Geopolitical Analysis

By K.N. Pandita

Around the last week of March, Pakistani media channel 4 received a video recording asking it to pay US dollars 10 million by way of ransom for the release of its freelance documentary maker Asad Qureshi kidnapped on March 25 by Punjab militants calling themselves Asian Tigers. They also demanded simultaneous freedom for two Taliban commanders, Mulla Baradar and Masud Dadullah in exchange of two other persons they had kidnapped together with Qureshi namely, Khalil Khwaja and Colonel Amir Sultan Tarrar generally known as Col. Imam.

Before we proceed with the main body of this piece, we shall try to know something about Sultan Tarrar.  Col. Tarrar a former ISI officer was once Pakistan’s Consul-General in Herat, a strategic town to the northeast of Afghanistan. He played crucial role in raising the Taliban militia under instructions and guidance of General Babar then Pakistan’s interior minister.  Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

Never before has Pakistan’s perfidious governance been as unabashedly exposed as by the report of the UN Committee on Inquiry into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

When the President of a sovereign country does not trust his law and justice enforcing establishment, and seeks international to conduct impartial inquiry into the assassination of his wife on December 27, 2007, it loudly speaks of sordid state of affairs in that country. The assassination of Benazir took place just two weeks before parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8, 2008 would commence. International community is aghast at the unraveling of inside story of this heinous crime in which Pakistani Army, Intelligence establishment and administrative machinery are implicated.  Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

After nearly two weeks of bizarre drama of accusations and counter accusations, hiding and revealing of hideous facets of IPL, the grand finale has come down with a bang. First there appeared only the tip of the iceberg and gradually, thanks to the unrelenting and to some extent scandal-loving electronic media, a big chunk of the colossus money scam got revealed to the naked eye.

Yes, big money is involved and we have the big fish in the cesspool. One should appreciate the originality of those who conceived the novel idea of laundering black money and evading the income tax. And some of them who are in the fray claim to be nationalists par excellence.  Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

Defending his Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) draft Bill 2010, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal claimed that “the bill would usher in a revolution larger than one in telecom sector in this country.”

Why then was a highly beneficial measure not initiated all these years that would have brought substantial change to India’s education sector?  Actually the Congress government in 1955 failed to see it through, and the coalition government led by UPA in 2006 again failed in pushing the bill in the parliament.  Continue Reading…

Linked with Perils of Proliferation in South Asia. 

By K.N. Pandita, New Delhi,
 
Curously neither any of the authors nor the reviewer focuses on the most important reason for Pakistani Army to hazard Kargl misadventure. It has to be reminded that Kargil happened close at the heels of Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore and an understanding of sorts between Vajpayee and Mian Nawaz Sharied had developed to give a new shape to Indo-Pak bilateral relations. Even Kashmir was discussed by the two leaders and there were positive signs for a broad-based understanding on the ticklish issue.  Continue Reading…

Linked with K.N. Pandita’s Rejoinder.

(Michael Krepon is the co-founder of the Stimson Center and the author of Better Safe than Sorry, The Ironies of Living with the Bomb (2009). This article first appeared in the April issue of Arms Control Today, – see Michael Krepon’s book review). 

By Michael Krepon,

There have been four nuclear-tinged crises in South Asia since 1990, and new crises could well be generated by religious extremists carrying out mass-casualty attacks.  Several new books on regional stability and crisis management on the subcontinent are therefore timely and well worth reading.  Of particular interest are three collections o essays edited by Peter Lavoy, Scott Sagan, Sumit Ganguly and Paul Kapur. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

As Indo-US civilian nuclear deal progressed through tortuous negotiations during the period 2007-9, Islamabad was keenly watching how things shaped and what could be probable implications for her security and foreign policy.

During President Bush’s visit to India, with a short leg to Pakistan, he had rebuffed Pakistan by telling them that they had no dearth of energy resources and supply prospects. He had in his mind long standing Pak-Saudi close relations and was aware that the Gulf kingdom had been giving special concessions to Pakistan for oil imports.

Apart from this, Bush had also in his mind the proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline which Washington has been opposing from day one.  Continue Reading…