Pakistan's security establishment has a history of using politically motivated trials to get rid of inconvenient civilian governments. Most famously, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq's 1977 coup was finalised when a military court sentenced Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to death following what international officials dismissed as a mock trial fought in a...

Ambassador Haqqani's resignation Tuesday morning launched a flurry of reactions and speculations in Pakistan. Many believed their worst fears were coming true -- either the military was attempting a coup, or the civilians were. But as the hours passed, things began to calm down and what many believed were the...

The decision by the government of Pakistan to grant Most Favoured Nation status to India is a significant step towards improving not only economic opportunity in the region, but bilateral relations between the two South Asian powers. While economists agree the decision will be mutually

American Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a strong warning to a long-time US ally last weekend, warning that if they don't change their stubborn adherence to a paranoid and unrealistic foreign policy, they face international isolation. That ally? Israel. But before our hyper-nationalist chattering classes begin pointing to this...

It was almost a year ago that I wrote about Pakistan's rabid media peddling unattributed, unsourced tirades about governmental instability. Just days after that piece was published, yet another media-driven crisis filled the airwaves with predictions of the government's imminent doom. Of course, this too turned out...

Pakistan was back in the headlines last week as a coalition party announced that it would request to be seated on opposition benches in protest over austerity measures. The push and pull of coalition politics put the nation's well-oiled prediction machines into overdrive. But, come the week end, the heavens...

Pakistan is not the only country in the world where corruption takes place, but it does seem to be one of the few countries where the approach to reducing corruption actually feeds its existence. While corruption should never be tolerated or excused, we should be asking whether this seeming obsession...

The past few days we have witnessed a lot of panic about the state of US-Pakistan relations following the release of secret diplomatic cables by the website Wikileaks. In Pakistan, right-wing conspiracy theorists see the documents as proof of a secret plan to seize the nation's nuclear assets; their counterparts...

As much as we are different, in many ways Pakistanis and Americans are actually quite similar. Events this past week have revealed some of these similarities as officials in both countries unveiled new tax proposals.

In the US, the chairmen of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform...

As a young democracy, Pakistan looks to the United States and other advanced democracies for lessons in how to play politics. Some of these, including the move to open and transparent elections, have been positive. But there are signs that some of the uglier parts of American politics are influencing...

Something is very wrong with the state of US-Pakistani relations at this critical time in the war against extremism and fanaticism. In the midst of this defining moment in the war effort in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, the US has turned its guns not on its enemies but on its...

Another typical week in the saga of Pakistan. Twenty percent of the country still underwater. Drone attacks on new levels. NATO helicopters crossing border and attacking within Pakistan. The Chief Justice on the warpath for a quasi-constitutional judicial coup against the elected government. Rumors of military itchiness. Nawaz once again...

From reading the Pakistani press, or watching its rambunctious cable television networks, one would never guess that the country has absorbed the worst natural disaster in its recorded history. One-fifth of the country was submerged; 1,800 people were killed; over twenty million people have lost everything they own and are...