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Pakistan's Democratic Promise - Toronto Star

For the first time in its 66-year history, Pakistan has changed one democratically elected government for another....

Pakistan's Surprisingly Hopeful Election - Isaac Chotiner, New Republic

The fact that this same Sharif, the man who oversaw Pakistani nuclear tests and is known for close ties to conservative religious groups, has now made a comeback after years in e...

Pakistan Vote a Marker of Global Progress - Christian Science Monitor

The Pakistan election on Saturday put a former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, back in power but that's not really the big story. Democracy itself advanced against Islamic terror and...

Can Sharif Make Peace with the Taliban? - Claude Rakisits, Conversation

The newly-elected Pakistani government of Nawaz Sharif is set to enact policies - most notably negotiating with the Pakistani wing of the Taliban - that will forever alter the dyna...

Pakistan Is Still an Enemy of the U.S. - Max Boot, Commentary

In foreign policy, however, there is unlikely to be much change since pretty much the entire army leadership–not just General Kayani–supports Pakistan’s existing ...

Brave Pakistanis Stood Up to the Radicals - Huma Yusuf, Latitude

Defying threats from Taliban suicide bombers, almost 60 percent of registered voters in Pakistan headed to the polls on Saturday. It was the greatest turnout since 1970. The elec...

Is Sharif's Win Really Good News for India? - Praveen Swami, Firstpost

For a decade, Prime Minister Singh worked towards a seamless South Asia, believing trade and people-to-people contact it will pave the way for a durable peace. The dream is a pleas...

Pakistan Army Helps Advance Democracy - Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star

If Pakistan can get through this year smoothly, it should be well on its way to becoming a stable democracy, the best antidote to all that has been so horribly wrong with it for to...

Can a New Government Heal Pakistan? - Ishtiaq Ahmed, Daily Times

Whether Pakistan was created to establish an Islamic order where justice and fair play would prevail or not, the fact remains that the Pakistani ruling class has pillaged national ...

Third Time's the Charm in Pakistan? - The Economist

Does all this mark a hopeful new beginning for Pakistan? After years of despair, and talk of Pakistan being on the brink of becoming a failed state, Mr Sharif could make a start at...

Despite Grave Dangers, an Energized Vote in Pakistan - Dawn

Still, flawed and indifferent to fundamental problems as the campaign season has been, it has also seen energy and enthusiasm on a riveting scale. The tussle between the PML-N and ...

Pakistan's Last Shot at Democracy - Anatol Lieven, Financial Times

Pakistan is about to cross an important threshold: this weekend’s elections, if all goes to plan, will mark the country’s first transition between elected governments. But this...

Democracy's Low Approval Rating in Pakistan - Aziz Nayani, The Atlantic

On May 11, Pakistanis will head to the polls to elect a government for the next five years. For a country that has struggled to maintain democracy, and one that has been governed b...

Pakistan's 'Change' Candidate Channels Obama - Omar Waraich, Time

The front wall of Lahore’s Shaukat Khanum hospital has come to resemble a shrine. Scores of bouquets of flowers are arrayed amid a sprinkling of “get well soo...

In Balochistan, It's Nationalists vs. Separatists - Anita Joshua, The Hindu

The May 11 parliamentary election is being seen by both the Pakistan state and insurgents as a referendum on secessionism....

Pakistan Election: Bloodied, but Not Beaten - The Economist

It was a television image that many feared seeing in an election campaign beset by terrorist attacks. A prominent party leader, aspiring to be prime minister,was shown bloodied, un...

Imran Khan: Pakistan's Wildcard - Samira Shackle, New Statesman

Khan's accident may have brought an early end to his rousing public appearances, but it is unlikely that at this stage, it will make much difference. Sharif remains the frontrunner...

Pakistan's Old Feudal Elites Struggle - Omar Waraich, Time

Yousaf Raza Gilani throws himself behind the wheel of his white SUV and sets off into the countryside outside Multan, an ancient city in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Gilani, 60,...

America's Drone Delusion - Steve Coll, The New Yorker

The Obama Administration has never made clear why it thought that capturing Awlaki and bringing him to trial was infeasible. Nor has it described the specific standards it used to ...

Is Nawaz Sharif the Answer to Pakistan's Problems? - The Economist

After 14 years in exile and opposition, Nawaz Sharif expects to win a third spell as prime minister....

Is Israel Really Pakistan's Enemy? - Farooq Yousaf, The Big Picture

Growing up in Peshawar, a slightly conservative city of Pakistan, my sentiments as a child were nothing different from those of others in most parts of the country. I had a slight ...

Is Pakistan a Failing State? - Gustav Ranis, Yale Global

The coming election will put to test the Pakistan People's Party leadership of Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded his murdered wife, Benazir Bhutto. Polls indicate that Nawaz Sharif o...

The Af-Pak Peace Tipping Point - Chaudhary & Samad, The Daily Beast

Relations between Kabul and Islamabad have soured since February when it was announced at a trilateral meeting hosted by the British Prime Minister that a peace deal may be pos...

Pervez Musharraf: Yesterday's Man - The Australian

Getting a dose of his own medicine as a dictator and ending up under house arrest was obviously not the outcome Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf anticipated when h...

No Victory for Pakistan's Democracy - John Schmidt, The National Interest

Many observers, including those inside Pakistan, have hailed the success of the Zardari government in serving out its entire term as a significant victory for Pakistani democracy. ...

Who Really Rules Pakistan? - Hasan-Askari Rizvi, The Express Tribune

Pakistan is approaching the 10th general elections. It is, therefore, pertinent to ask who rules this country. There is no brief and single answer to this question....

Time for Pakistan to Put Musharraf in the Past - Dawn

Sometimes justice is best served by letting history be, rather than forcibly dragging it into the present. Gen Musharraf too is part of Pakistan’s past and he should be left ...

Pakistan's Quiet Revolution - The Daily Star

Mass street protests and armed rebellions have been the hallmark of challenges to authoritarianism in Arab states over the last two years, but a “quiet” judicial decision in Pa...

China's Dangerous India-Pak Nuclear Game - Harsh Pant, Japan Times

The nonproliferation regime is in crisis with North Korea’s defiance and Iran’s continuation of its nuclear program despite opposition from the international community. Yet whi...

Musharaff's Great Folly Tests the Army - Arif Rafiq, Foreign Policy

Today, General Musharraf is now Mr. Musharraf, and he's once again gotten himself into trouble. On Thursday morning, he fled from the Islamabad High Court, which had denied his p...

Why Do Attacks in America Matter More? - Rafia Zakaria, Guernica

As a weekly columnist for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, I’ve become adept at writing about bombings. Pakistan suffered 652 of these last year; terrorist attacks took down eve...

How the U.S. Is Losing Pakistan - Omar Waraich, Time

One evening in June 2009, Richard Holbrooke paid a visit to Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari at the presidential palace in Islamabad. It was one of his first visits to the...

Pakistan's Electoral Wild Cards - Arif Rafiq, The Diplomat

Pakistan is a society in flux. It would be a mistake not to consider possibilities in which new factors produce alternative electoral outcomes....

How Pakistan's Brightest Flock to Terror - Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica

Imagine a terrorist group that recruits tens of thousands of young men from the same neighborhoods and social networks as the Pakistani military. A group whose well-educated recrui...

Militants Threaten Pakistan's Election Process - Dawn

Moves have been made in the recent past to reform the electoral process to ensure more credible polls. These include the selection of the chief election commissioner and caretaker ...

Has Pakistan Changed Its Tune Toward Afghanistan? - IISS

Has Pakistan really shifted its policy towards neighbouring Afghanistan and, if so, what lies behind the change? Reports of a policy reversal in Islamabad surfaced in November 2012...

India-Pakistan: Business First - Manjeet Kripalani, The Diplomat

The road to reconciliation between India and Pakistan is likely to be a long one. But perhaps economic compulsions can overtake political ones....

India and Pakistan's Mandela - Rafia Zakaria, Philosophistan

Jinnah did not live, and Pakistan continues to battle the conundrums of unanswered questions left by the untimely departure of the first man with the plan. The Indian readers, who ...

World's Megacities Move East - Joel Kotkin & Wendell Cox, New Geography

The fastest-growing megacities over the past decade have been primarily in the developing world. Karachi, Pakistan, has led the growth charge, with a remarkable 80% expansion in it...

Pakistan Election Signals Progress and Peril - The Guardian

Next month's elections in Pakistan signal progress for the country. Alas the good news peters out there....

Targeted Killing Comes to Define War on Terror - Scott Shane, NY Times

Despite Mr. Brennan’s protestations, an overwhelming reliance on killing terrorism suspects, which began in the administration of George W. Bush, has defined the Obama years....

Is There Any Hope for Pakistan? - James Traub, Foreign Policy

In the streets of Pakistan, people have had it about up to here. For the Obama administration's diminished goals there, maybe that's not a bad thing....

A Shocking Level of Violence in Pakistan - Dawn

PUT together, the numbers are shocking: in the past year, over 2,000 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured in 1,577 militant attacks across the country. In Karachi, more t...

Pakistan's Precipitous Decline - William Milam, New York Times

Pakistanis are celebrating the accomplishment of an elected government — for the first time in the country’s history — serving in office for the full five years o...

Pakistan's Dangerous Elections - Fasih Ahmed, The Daily Beast

A self-confessed peddler of nuclear weapons, a sport star turned messiah, a Saudi proxy who once wished to declare himself the Shadow of God on Earth -- these are just some of the ...

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