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Friday April 19, 2024
Shamshad Ahmad
Shamshad Ahmad

  • October 05, 2016

    Are we sure about India?

    The writer is a former foreign secretary. Chief Minister Narendra Modi has done it. In his typical, inelegant manner, he has raised the curtain on...

  • September 04, 2016

    Change the politics

    On this gloomy Independence Day, in the aftermath of yet another brutal tragedy in Quetta, the nation wondered in agony if there will ever be an end...

  • August 10, 2016

    Kashmir on fire

    Occupied Kashmir is aflame again, with Kashmiri people facing the worst-ever brutalities by the Indian security forces. This time nobody can blame...

  • June 28, 2016

    The NSG’s ‘goose and gander’ dilemma

    The writer is a former foreign secretary. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Marco Polo diplomacy and Washington’s full-throttle...

  • May 28, 2016

    An uneasy nuclear equation

    In the 1980s, once driving on a busy New York street, I was struck by a popular bumper sticker that read: “One nuclear bomb can ruin your...

  • April 20, 2016

    Our ‘offshore’ rulers

    We are endlessly lost in what could pass for a puppetry drama where actors made of flesh and actors made of wood are together producing a constant...

  • March 23, 2016

    Whither Quaid’s Pakistan?

    “On 23rd March, 1940, a group of valiant and fiercely determined individuals gathered at Manto Park, Lahore, and resolved to give their fellow...

  • February 12, 2016

    Leaders and legacies

    The writer is a former foreign secretary. Nations are not led by leaders any more. Countries, including those considered mothers and champions of...

  • January 11, 2016

    Gesture of the year or ‘poker’ diplomacy?

    The outgoing year ended on an unexpectedly positive note in the India-Pakistan context. After a long chill, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi...

  • December 12, 2015

    A story of cold-blooded realpolitik

    Terrorism continues to haunt the world. The problem is that in the aftermath of 9/11, the detractors of Islam found it easy to contrive stereotypes...

  • November 18, 2015

    A ‘knotty’ love affair

    Despite Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s unrelenting overtures for peace between India and Pakistan, the two nuclear-armed neighbours remain...

  • October 30, 2015

    Kasuri and the Kashmir issue

    The writer is a former foreign secretary. Former foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri deserves praise for rejuvenating the Kashmir issue. Nobody else...

  • October 03, 2015

    New York’s annual ‘carnival’

    The month of September every year comes and goes without changing anything in our turbulent world, but for the world’s leaders it brings the...

  • September 14, 2015

    Where is the state of Pakistan?

    This year the nation observed Defence Day all over the country with unprecedented zeal and solemnity. It was indeed an occasion to acknowledge the...

  • August 14, 2015

    The story of Pakistan

    The writer is a former foreign secretary. It was indeed with a sense of supreme satisfaction at the fulfilment of his mission that Quaid-e-Azam told...

  • August 02, 2015

    Obama’s ‘Nobel’ debt

    T S Eliot was not joking when he said “the Nobel is a ticket to one’s own funeral. No one has ever done anything after he got it.” President...

  • July 11, 2015

    An elusive nuclear deal

    The negotiations over the Iranian nuclear deal in Vienna seem to be struggling through last minute hiccups, with both sides trying to manoeuvre...

  • June 25, 2015

    Modi calls again

    Whether we like it or not, India’s Narendra Modi is in the driver’s seat at least in controlling the ‘temperature’ in Islamabad. He just has...