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CPEC and The New Great Game on the Roof of the World
On top of the graceful Baltit Fort, overlooking the Hunza Valley’s Shangri-La-style splendor, it’s impossible not to feel dizzy at the view: an overwhelming collision of millennia of geology and centuries of history. We are at the heart of Gilgit-Baltistan, in Pakistan’s Northern Areas, or – as legend rules, the Roof of the World. This…
India Shouldn’t Undermine Afghan Peace Talks
The Press Trust of India has reported on the discussions regarding Afghanistan in Washington last week between the visiting Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and the US special representative Zalmay Khalilzad. The report carries a New Delhi dateline and is attributed to ‘official sources’. According to the report, FS made a demarche with Khalilzad that any…
Ministry of Silly Stunts? Bizarre Pakistani School for Razor Wire Tricks Seeks Govt Funding
A school in a war-torn region of Pakistan helping lionhearted stunt artists to master outlandish tricks, such as eyelid weightlifting and nail walking, wants the government to provide it with funding. The private academy is run by stunt master Ghulam Farooq, who last Sunday displayed the stomach-churning feats that go on at the Balochistan province…
Hong Kong, Kashmir: a Tale of Two Occupations
Readers from myriad latitudes have been asking me about Hong Kong. They know it’s one of my previous homes. I developed a complex, multi-faceted relationship with Hong Kong ever since the 1997 handover, which I covered extensively. Right now, if you allow me, I’d rather cut to the chase. Much to the distress of neocons…
Energy Crisis in Pakistan
On July 7, 2022, Bloomberg ran a story with the headline “Pakistan’s $1 Billion Gas Tender Flop to Worsen Energy Crisis”. The author, citing traders, writes that state-owned Pakistan LNG received not a single offer in a $1 billion liquefied natural gas purchase tender. That indicates both the extent of the global fuel shortage, and also the…
Pakistan and Iran are Strengthening the Centre-oriented Trends in the Region
The Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif’s visit to Islamabad in late August 2018 was the first meeting conducted by the new Pakistani leadership headed by the Prime Minister Imran Khan and high-ranking foreign guests. The agreements reached confirmed the trend towards consolidating the forces in the region. The ad hoc nature of…