ISLAMABAD: The US embassy has been found involved in importing sophisticated weapons to Pakistan without the permission and knowledge of the authorities here.
The Foreign Office and the Commerce Ministry denied having authorised the US or any other foreign mission to import huge quantity of weapons. However, the fact remains that the US embassy in Islamabad has brought to Pakistan at least two consignments of modern weapons during this year.
The Foreign Office, which is the main coordinating federal agency in any such deal of foreign missions, and the Commerce Ministry, which …

In the past two weeks we have seen attacks by militants on the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, bombings in Kohat and Peshawar, and synchronised attacks on police buildings in Lahore. At the same time we have seen an increased build up to the impending ground offensive in South Waziristan, which the US administration is pushing the Pakistan Army to commence. Against this background we make the following points:
1. The recent attacks will undoubtedly be used by the Zardari regime to justify the need for the Waziristan operation. However, this …

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Britain is to help Pakistan set up a national security authority and beef up the capacity of its law enforcing agencies to fight terrorism, a British government minister said on Tuesday.
Pakistan is fighting al Qaeda-linked militants who have carried out numerous attacks on its security forces, government and foreign targets in recent years.
At the same time, Britain is worried that radicalised young British men of Pakistani descent can come to Pakistan and make contact with militant groups, get training and develop plots.
British Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan …

As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, U.S. officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.
But U.S. officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the remote and arid Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into …

The foreign ministers of Pakistan and India, meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York at the weekend, did not agree on the resumption of formal talks between the countries.
However, their meeting – the first high-level contact between the countries since July – sets the stage for Washington-mediated backchannel talks for which Pakistan has already appointed a senior envoy, Riaz Mohammad Khan.
The central issues in this dialogue will be the regional “war on terror” and the establishment of a “fair bargain” between India and …