Tensions are running high in the wake of the right-wing's electoral victory in Gujerat, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
The importance of the recent elections in the Indian state of Gujerat cannot be overestimated. The result -- victory for the (...)
Pakistan's new government is facing serious teething problems, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
It has not been a good week for the new government of Mir Zafarullah Jamali. On the international front, renewed militancy in Indian Kashmir has (...)
Democracy has made a rather uncertain comeback in Pakistan. And, the execution of Mir Aimal Kasi in Virginia has opened up a can of worms over his illegal extradition from Pakistan. Iffat Malik reports from Islamabad
Click to view caption
Three (...)
After three years of military dictatorship, Pakistan is taking steps to reverse its international pariah status, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
Click to view caption
Pakistan has been making slow but steady progress in its attempts to (...)
Pakistanis go to the polls, but real power will remain with the military, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
On Thursday 10 October Pakistanis go to the polls to restore democratically elected civilian rule, after three years of military rule. While (...)
Another setback for Al-Qa'eda as Pakistani security forces catch a chief terrorist suspect, reports Iffat Malik from Karachi
Last week, police in Karachi were celebrating the capture of one of the most wanted Al-Qa'eda suspects. Appropriately (...)
The recent attempt to assassinate Hamid Karzai signals troubled times in Afghanistan, writes Iffat Malik from Islamabad
Click to view caption
As the first anniversary of 11 September approaches, Afghanistan has seen one of the most turbulent weeks (...)
Fearing violent reprisal from the Northern Alliance, the Karzai administration and the UN are refusing to investigate the death of over 1,000 Taliban POWs, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
The recent discovery of what appear to be mass graves of (...)
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's attempts to consolidate his power base are being assaulted on all fronts, writes Iffat Malik from Islamabad
Click to view caption
It was not a good week for President Musharraf. As opposition to his (...)
First the US Air Force turned a wedding into a massacre, then Afghan Vice-President Haji Abdul-Qadir was murdered. What else can go wrong, asks Iffat Malik from Islamabad
Tragedy struck Afghanistan again last week as 48 people, mostly women and (...)
After a slow start, a flurry of Western diplomatic activity appears to have decreased the chances that war erupts between India and Pakistan, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
International efforts to avert war in southeast Asia continued last week (...)
When Vajpayee and Musharraf went to the Almaty summit this week, the situation was still tense between India and Pakistan, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
Click to view caption
June is a month when foreign nationals living in the Indian (...)
Amid much speculation about imminent war between rival nuclear powers India and Pakistan, a flurry of diplomatic activity is aiming at averting conflict, writes Iffat Malik from Islamabad
Click to view caption
The question of whether India and (...)
Tensions in India and Pakistan are running high, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
Click to view caption
United States Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca made her third trip in as many months to south Asia last week, hoping to reduce (...)
Iffat Malik from Islamabad examines the disturbing impact of US infiltration into the tribal areas of Pakistan in search of remaining Al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters, and looks into the implications of Karachi's bomb blast
Brigadier Roger Lane, the (...)
Iffat Malik from Islamabad examines the disturbing impact of US infiltration into the tribal areas of Pakistan in search of remaining Al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters, and looks into the implications of Karachi's bomb blast
The euphoria felt by (...)
The Karzai administration's honeymoon period is over and Afghanistan is slowly but surely descending into chaos, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad
No one believed that bringing peace and stability to a country racked by war and civil conflict for (...)
The murder of an Afghan minister has cast a long shadow of doubt on the interim administration in Afghanistan. From Islamabad, Iffat Malik asks who killed the minister and why
Last Thursday evening at Kabul airport, Dr Abdul Rehman, civil aviation (...)
For over two decades Afghanistan's main export has been refugees. As another war winds down in the country, Al-Ahram Weekly explores the lot of the millions of Afghans who sought to escape the carnage
A people at ground zero
Although a semblance of (...)
India and Pakistan are noisily beating the war drums, but actual warfare may not be in the cards, writes Iffat Malik from Islamabad
If one were a betting person, the odds on another war breaking out between South Asia's chronically hostile (...)
India and Pakistan, as if not content with their dispute over Kashmir, are now battling for influence in Afghanistan. So far, India is doing better. Iffat Malik writes from Islamabad
The US decision to wage war on Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban has (...)
The deal for an interim administration in Kabul, thrashed out in Bonn, resulted in a precarious balancing act between Afghanistan's many factions. Iffat Malik asks whether the deal will work
After eight days of negotiations, plenty of skillful (...)
The UN-sponsored talks in Bonn are a show of mind over muscle as Afghan leaders try and hash out a deal for a future government, writes Iffat Malik
No one expected it to be an easy task. Getting Afghanistan's disparate and, until recently, (...)