China stands firmly embedded in 2022 in Pakistan’ Army’s strategic calculus despite unfolding geopolitical environment heavily stacked against China and thereby devaluing Pakistan Army’s strategic- asset worth to United States. In 2022, the United States should not be misled into the belief that Pakistan Army’s strategic- asset value can be retrieved to serve United States security interests again. Pakistan in […]

Islamabad must tread carefully with its long-time Taliban allies back in power in Kabul. Pitfalls lie ahead for Pakistan’s domestic security and its foreign relations. The Pakistani government should encourage Afghanistan’s new authorities down the path of compromise with international demands regarding rights and counter-terrorism. What’s new? Pakistan faces difficult challenges in shaping policy toward Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Though Pakistan continues to […]

Twin attacks by separatists on Pakistani military posts in the volatile southwestern Baluchistan province triggered intense firefights that lasted hours and killed seven soldiers and 13 assailants, Pakistan’s interior minister and the military said Thursday. A recently formed separatist group, the Baluchistan Nationalist Army, had claimed responsibility for the attacks late Wednesday in a post on Twitter. In one of […]

The Afghani (AFN) has rebounded in recent weeks to a stronger 94 AFN to the US dollar, after its recent plunge which at one stage saw the currency fall to a low of 130 AFN to the dollar. According to Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) spokesman Inamullah Samangani, the stronger AFN comes on the back of efforts by government to […]

Insurgents in the Pakistani province of Balochistan attacked two military bases overnight, killing four soldiers while losing 15 of their own men, a top official said on Thursday, in the latest violence in the resource-rich region where China is investing. The attacks came hours before Prime Minister Imran Khan set off for the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in […]

The Afghan embassy in Moscow says it is functioning normally and does not need more employees, a media report said on Wednesday. “Currently, the embassy in Moscow is operating as usual. All its divisions operate on the full staff of experienced diplomats and specialists, like before,” Speaking to TASS news agency, the embassy press service claimed the Taliban, who did […]

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has discussed the situation in Afghanistan with his Dutch and Kyrgyz counterparts. Qureshi received a telephone call from Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra on Tuesday, reported the state-run news agency APP. He highlighted Pakistan’s facilitative role in the evacuation of foreign nationals from Afghanistan. The minister also spoke of Pakistan’s efforts to sensitize the international […]

Four thousands irrelevant people have been removed from security forces ranks, Daesh is not a future threat in Afghanistan and adequate number of female will be part of security forces in the future, a top government official said on Wednesday. Mufti LutfullahHakimi, Chief auditor at the Ministry of Defence and head of the Taliban Security Forces Contingent Inspection, during an […]

It’s approaching six months since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15. And in the months since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, neighboring China has taken a keen interest in the fate of the Central Asian country. The interest, in fact, predated the Taliban takeover. In late July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a nine-member […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Council of Ministers has issued a decree banning military personnel from entering amusement parks when in uniform, and carrying weapons. A spokesman for the IEA, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Twitter: “Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are not allowed to enter amusement parks with weapons, military uniforms and vehicles.” “The Mujahideen are obliged to abide […]