By Atul Singh In 52 BC, Vercingetorix threw down his arms at the feet of Julius Caesar. This marked the Roman victory over Gaul. Caesar went on to write Commentarii de Bello Gallico, while Vercingetorix was paraded as a prisoner in Rome and then strangled to death. Caesar claimed he had to invade Gaul to protect Rome. In reality, he was deep in debt. His overriding motive was to pay back his debt by conquering and plundering Gaul. Yet over time, Romans built roads and aqueducts in Gaul and other conquered lands. The civil law systems used by much of the world have their roots in Roman law. This article itself is written in the Roman alphabet. The United States is the Rome of our times. It fashioned the exist...
October 17, 2015 at 10:37 pm | News Desk
NEW DELHI: India has accelerated plans to buy drones from Israel that can be armed and can allow the military to carry out strikes overseas with less risk to personnel, defence sources have said. The news comes weeks after Pakistan reported using a home made drone in combat when it attacked militants on its soil, raising the prospect of a new front in the nuclear-armed neighbors' standoff over Kashmir that has twice spilled into war. The plan to acquire Israeli Herons was first conceived three years ago, but in January the military wrote to the government asking for speedy delivery, the sources said, as Pakistan and China develop their own drone warfare capabilities. India has already deployed Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (U...
September 22, 2015 at 4:40 pm | News Desk
Farhan Bokhari High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Pakistan could have the world’s third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons after the US and Russia within a decade if it continues to build up to 20 nuclear warheads annually, a new report warns. The report, written by two respected US analysts and published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, concluded that Pakistan is outpacing India, with its neighbour and rival appearing to produce just five warheads annually. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this articl...
August 29, 2015 at 12:06 pm | News Desk
Miyamoto Musashi, a victorious Japanese swordsman wrote in his famous book ‘The Book of Five Rings’ that in strategy, it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things. But these thoughts are taken into account by those who have vision, farsightedness and pain of their nation. The situation of our country is much different. Here a government comes to serve its vested interests and secure enough to be financially powerful through thieving the national exchequer. None of the institutions are above the National Action Plan under its famous 20 points agenda unanimously taken on December 24, 2014 with the backing of 21st Constitutional Amendment. It was aimed at the executio...
August 18, 2015 at 2:19 pm | News Desk
Rana Banerji Not since Pakistan’s former Interior Minister, late Nasrullah Khan Babar’s, crackdown in mid-1995, has the Mohajir Muttahida Quami Movement – Altaf (MQM- A) been subjected to such a relentless siege by the Pakistan Rangers and the Sindh Police in Karachi. On March 11, 90, Azizabad, or `Nine Zero’, the home of Altaf Hussain in Federal B Area, the sanctified MQM headquarters, was raided by Pakistan Rangers. Several MQM-A party workers were arrested, arms and ammunition allegedly stolen from NATO containers seized, and five criminals wanted in the January 2011 murder of journalist Wali Khan Babbar were apprehended. The current operations in Karachi have been ongoing since August, 2014. The effort of the law...
August 17, 2015 at 6:53 pm | News Desk
Fanny Ragot Recently, a new strategic dialogue was held between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Taliban leadership in the hill city of Murree, Pakistan. These negotiations were coordinated by China, illustrating Beijing’s recent commitment to support Kabul in pacifying its country. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, elected in mid-2014, has been reaffirming his willingness to set the wheels of negotiations in motion. It implies engaging in negotiations with Pakistan to resolve the problem of Pakistan’s support for the Taliban, across the Durand Line. While the dialogue is still new, China appears to be brokering these discussions. That Beijing is evidently involving itself in shaping the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan mor...
August 17, 2015 at 6:17 pm | News Desk
When the US sneezes, an old saying goes, the world catches a cold. That’s been nowhere more true than in Asia. But as China’s coughing fit grows louder, countries in the region are wondering whether their neighbour’s illness will also prove contagious. Since Wall Street’s crash in 2008, Asia has been pivoting to China. The $16.8 trillion US economy is still 1.8 times bigger and its per capita income dwarfs China’s. But China is Asia’s biggest trading partner and, increasingly, its benefactor. Flush with $3.7tr of currency reserves and its new $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China has used checkbook diplomacy to make friends across the region. Asia’s social media accounts are now pulsating with talk of ...
August 17, 2015 at 5:28 pm | News Desk
Hussain Nadim Born and raised as privileged individuals, it’s often the case that we end up raising our voice and concern for the rights of Muslims far away in Palestine or Myanmar, forgetting our very own neighborhoods that have been struggling for their rights for decades. Many of us who do even end up raising our voices, seldom do so beyond social media, doing more harm than good to the Baloch cause — a cause which is more about getting an equal playing field and less about Baloch independence. My experience with Balochistan has been different, and naturally my problem-identification and solution is also counter-intuitive. Successive governments in Pakistan, both democratic and military, have tried to reach middle ground to res...
August 17, 2015 at 5:14 pm | News Desk
Looking from abroad at the statements of the Australian government regarding security, one would be forgiven for thinking the country had just suffered a 9/11 scale attack or was currently engaged in a war for its very survival. The country’s hard right Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has over the past six months employed increasingly shrill and fearful language to address the threat posed by terrorism and the Daesh in particular. The government’s increasing use of such loaded language began last year, in the months after the release of its first Federal Budget. The Government had fought its election campaign around the issues of illegal immigrants and the budget deficit, with the latter in particular being spoke of as a “debt ...
August 17, 2015 at 4:42 pm | News Desk
In 1940, Stalin sent his strongest political operative, Andrey Vyshinsky, to bring the Baltic States to heel under the boot of the Soviet state. Vyshinsky arrived in Latvia on June 18th, installed as Stalin’s special envoy. The president of Latvia, Karlis Ulmanis, was forced to appoint a “people’s government”. Within days, the president and key members of his administration were arrested and deported to the Soviet Union. A hastily scrambled election took place on July 14-15, with a single list of Soviet-picked candidates on the ballot. The results gave 97.8 percent of the vote to the previously unknown and unheralded candidates. Vyshinsky preened for the press corps and expressed hope the newly elected “people’s...
August 15, 2015 at 11:46 am | News Desk
INTRODUCTION: Investigations and other related enforcement activities including off-site and on-site surveillance and inspections are potent weapons in the regulatory arsenal of law enforcement agencies globally. Investigations are made either for detailed examinations or to find out facts. Regulatory and law enforcement agencies can effectively accomplish their statutory mandate if they exercises their investigative authority prudently and professionally. Financial and white-collar crimes have increased tremendously in recent years. Investigators and law enforcement personnel need to be well-equipped in combating such crimes. An investigator shall have the ability to elicit facts from evidences and witnesses in a fair, impartial, law...
June 17, 2015 at 5:45 pm | News Desk
India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has long faced allegations of meddling in its neighbors' affairs. "India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan", said Chuck Hage, the defense secretary (2013-2015), in a written speech at Oklahoma's Cameron University in 2011. Chuck Hagel had served on the US Senate Intelligence Committee before becoming the Pentagon chief. Since, Narendra Modi took over as the prime minister, RAW has stepped up its covert war against Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi appointed Ajit Doval, a well-known hawk, as his National Security Advisor. In the 1990s, Mr. Doval served as an undercover RAW agen...
June 16, 2015 at 9:53 pm | News Desk
There is no doubt that relationship matters in career advancement. Especially, in a country like Pakistan, it become difficult for professionals to achieve high rank positions if they don’t have close references, relations or friendships with people at higher levels. It is called nepotism. Nepotism and violation of merit has destroyed our institutions as incapable persons are being appointed on sensitive positions which also involve budgetary authority. National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is one institution has been suffering due to the manse of nepotism and violation of merit. The State Bank of Pakistan recent inspection report mentioned a number of appointments at senior position in NBP in violation of rules and merit. A few examples are...
February 4, 2015 at 6:09 pm | News Desk
Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan The United Arab Emirates has been taking part in many regional and international expos since its inception. It has been highly appreciated in all the expos it has participated. It was among the top ten pavilions at EXPO 2000 in Hannover. It was awarded a gold medal at EXPO Zaragoza 2008. It won a popular vote among the general public in Shanghai and came top in an academic study conducted by staff from UCLA who looked at public diplomacy criteria and the last but not the least received a silver medal in Yeosu. Furthermore, the main film shown in Yeosu has also won three gold medals at international film festivals. It has been acknowledgement of its superior skills of management, HRM, capacity building, craftsmanshi...
October 9, 2014 at 1:33 pm | News Desk
It may not be a ‘real Pakistan’, the one dreamt by Quaid-i-Azam, Allama Iqbal and the founding fathers but it’s a much better Pakistan today than the one witnessed in the 80s and 90s when Imran Khan was playing cricket and Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto were conspiring with the establishment against each other. Thus, the return of old Pakistan would be a disaster for this country. Imran Khan showed interest in politics in 1993 for the first time after playing cricket for 21 years and entered politics by making Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). In 18 years, the PTI has emerged as the second largest party in the 2013 elections. During all these years, Imran spent eight days in jail and sat on hunger strike for 48 hours.He has bro...
September 18, 2014 at 12:11 pm | News Desk
Be cautious while purchasing a dry battery for your uninterrupted power supply (UPS) or solar power system, as an expired, outdated junk of dry batteries has flooded the market in pretext of imported batteries. The manufacturing date on these imported batteries is not mentioned. Therefore, while purchasing, it is utmost necessary for the buyer to check the manufacturing date. The increasing use of UPS and solar power systems in Pakistan has raised the demand for dry batteries which have flooded the markets. Largely, the dry batteries available in markets do not have their manufacturing date inscribed on them. Investigations reveal that some importers are deceiving consumers and local distributors by importing expired/used dry batterie...
August 15, 2014 at 12:12 pm | News Desk
Pakistan Rupee Exchange Rate