Pakistan Politics

While Pakistan clearly seeks to maintain cordial relations with Iran, it is unlikely that it would be willing to incur the displeasure of Saudi Arabia with which it has greater economic and strategic links.

• Nazir Ahmad Mir
• October 24, 2018
• IDSA Comments

Pakistan is undergoing political turmoil once again. Once again an elected prime minister was first removed in July 2017, and then barred from fighting elections for life on April 13, 2018.

• Nazir Ahmad Mir
• July 2018
• Strategic Analysis

If the Pakistan Army fails to conclusively eliminate the scourge in the north-west, it will soon reach Punjab, which has been relatively free of major incidents of violence.

• Gurmeet Kanwal
• December 22, 2014
• IDSA Comments

If Nawaz Sharif now plays his cards well - improves governance, makes his politics more responsive and inclusive, reaches out to opposition and his constituency, doesn’t remain aloof and keeps the parliament and political parties as his back – he could well change the power equations for good.

• Sushant Sareen
• September 05, 2014
• IDSA Comments

The army has quite patiently allowed Imran and Qadri to carry on with their protests and create a political condition unfavourable enough for Nawaz Sharif to approach the army for help. Thus like in 1993, Nawaz is feeling the heat even if the opposition is not united in their effort to dislodge his government.

• Yaqoob-ul-Hassan
• August 08, 2014
• IDSA Comments

While Choudhary’s judicial activism did restore a degree of sanity to Pakistan, it came at the expense of other institutions and created an imbalance of power. Pakistan, to become a normal state, at peace with itself and the world at large, may not need institutional tinkering but a wholesale rejigging of its institutional superstructure and substructure.

• Wajahat Qazi
• December 18, 2013
• IDSA Comments

Nawaz Sharif’s sentiments for better relationship with India are laudable in spite of being still premature. There are constituencies within Pakistan for whom Kashmir continues to remain the core issue but the bigger challenge is whether Sharif will be able to bring the army on board.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik , Arvind Gupta
• May 16, 2013
• IDSA Comments

Like all its predecessors, the government that just completed its tenure miserably failed to promote what a democratic state is supposed to first and foremost, namely, foster the multi-faceted development of all its citizens.

• Jagdish N Singh
• April 01, 2013
• IDSA Comments

What is happening in Pakistan today is no secret. It is a country ruled by a shaky coalition of political parties led by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The government and judiciary are on a collision course with one Prime Minister (Yousuf Raza Gillani) having had to resign. The Army, the force behind every major decision in Pakistan, is zealously guarding its turf and dominant position in the polity, irrespective of who heads the government and unmindful of the ultimate consequences.

• Deepak Kapoor
• January 2013
• Journal of Defence Studies

It is precisely Zardari’s ability to do the unthinkable that has consistently confounded both his detractors and admirers and given him the aura of great cunning and cleverness.

• Sushant Sareen
• October 25, 2012
• IDSA Comments