Jauhar Ismail
On the eve of Pakistan’s 63rd independence day, President Asif Ali Zardari announced major reforms in the political, administrative and judicial make up of the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) - a combination of seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan.
It should be noted that as per the constitution of Pakistan, FATA is under [...]

Jauhar Ismail
The Pakistan government on Sunday announced a “decisive offensive” against the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) chief and Pakistan’s public enemy number one, Baitullah Mehsud. Baitullah is widely “credited” for dozens of brazen and spectacular attacks across Pakistan, the most recent being the Pearl Continental (PC) bombing in Peshawar and the killing of a prominenet anti-Taliban cleric [...]

Jauhar Ismail
The recent visit to Pakistan by the U.S Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and Admiral Mike Mullen highlighted the growing differences between Pakistan and the United States on how to tackle the threat of Pakistani Taliban. At another level, their visit also signified an emerging consensus between Pakistan’s political leadership and security establishment that it [...]

Jauhar Ismail
According to a recent Yahoo news update:
The government (of Pakistan) agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across much of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban insurgency spreading from the border region to the country’s interior.
In my opinion, the devil is really in the details and [...]

Jauhar Ismail
The latest crisis that has Pakistani’s from all walks of life up in arms is the lack of electrical power throughout the country. While rolling blackouts or load shedding as its locally known has always been a staple of daily life in Pakistan, the problem has become acute in the last couple of years. [...]

Jauhar Ismail
The photo to the left shows stormy clouds gathering over Islamabad on December 16, 2008.
Today, which is just six days later from when this photo was taken, I believe there is another storm brewing in Islamabad on its political and foreign relations front. Not withstanding the conspiracy theories still circling around in Pakistan, [...]