RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Peace Deal With Taliban Setback For Women

The ceasefire agreement reached by the provincial government in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Taliban on Feb.16, involving implementation of shariah (Islamic law), is being seen as a setback for women’s rights in the area bordering Afghanistan.

PAKISTAN: Fatal Polio Thrives on Conflict Along Porous Border

The battle to eradicate polio in Pakistan has become more complicated.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Signs of a Thaw

A week after Islamabad admitted that the plot to carry out the Nov. 26-29 attacks on Mumbai was partially planned in Pakistan, and that Pakistani nationals were among the assailants, there are tentative signs that the strained relations between the two neighbours may be thawing.

PAKISTAN: Militants Make Aid Work Risky

The kidnapping of John Solecki of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees(UNHCR)in Quetta, Balochistan province seems to confirm the perception of international humanitarian organisations that aid work in Pakistan is becoming increasingly hazardous.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: New Beginning Uncertain – Top Analysts

Almost three months after the terrorist attacks on India's commercial hub of Mumbai, which soured relations between India and Pakistan, the prospect for renewed cooperation between the nuclear-armed neighbours looks dim, two eminent analysts from the region conceded at a policy dialogue here.

PAKISTAN/INDIA: Taliban As Common Enemy

Since being elected to office five months ago, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has often declared that Pakistan's single biggest challenge stems from ‘religious' militants.

INDIA: Awaiting Pakistan’s Official Response to Mumbai Attacks

Five weeks after India handed over a dossier to Islamabad containing detailed evidence on the Nov. 26-29 Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan has finally promised an official response, based on investigations by its Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

PAKISTAN: Opening the A. Q. Khan Can of Worms

The release of Pakistani rogue nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, underlines major issues confronting Pakistan -and indeed the world - ranging from nuclear proliferation to governance, corruption, hypocrisy, and how public opinion is shaped by falsehoods.

CULTURE: Filmmakers Probe Multiple Identities, Partitions

A German teacher of Visual Cultures and studying documentaries in India organises a film screening in Pakistan. A Pakistani produces an innovative short film series featuring work from India, Pakistan and Britain.

PAKISTAN: Bracing For More Drone Attacks

On Jan 23, days after Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States, a series of missiles slammed into Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Afghan border - in continuation of Washington’s policy of targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban elements regardless of sovereignty issues.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Artists Take On Post-Colonial Partitions

With national boundaries continually being redrawn in the post-colonial world, it’s time to deal with the reality of partitions and find a way "to make peace with our partitioned selves", contends international banker-turned-art curator Hammad Nasar.

POLITICS-US: Top Defence Chiefs Vow Focus on Afghanistan

Both the top civilian and military leadership of the U.S. Department of Defence had busy days on Tuesday, fielding topically varied questions on their new policy priorities since President Barack Obama took office one week ago.

PAKISTAN: “We Ask Taliban To Spare Our Schools”

"My school was destroyed by (Pakistani) Taliban. I won’t be able to go back to it," says Sumaira bibi, a grade 5 student from Matta in Swat district.

PAKISTAN: Slum Fire Reignites Housing Concerns

A fire which razed a slum settlement and killed 40 of its residents earlier this month has brought to the fore the deplorable conditions in which half of the 12 million people of this port city live - and official indifference to their plight.

PAKISTAN/INDIA: Women Beat Unorthodox Paths to Peace

As high-profile delegations from Pakistan visit India after the launch of a month-long cross-border signature campaign to press for resumption of dialogue between the two countries and call for peace, IPS interviewed three Pakistani women who are pushing this agenda in their own unorthodox ways.

U.S.: Obama Picks Israel-Arab, Afghanistan-Pakistan Negotiators

In his first major diplomatic moves since his inauguration, U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday named two accomplished negotiators, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and Amb. Richard Holbrooke, as special envoys to deal with the Israel-Arab conflict and "the deteriorating situation" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, respectively.

PAKISTAN: Obama Inauguration Brings Hope, Scepticism

As billions of people around the world tuned in to participate electronically in Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, the message of hope that he symbolised resonated with Pakistanis - though some shrugged it off as part of a system that is unlikely to change.

INDIA: ‘No Reason For Unease at Obama Presidency’

As much of the world jubilates in the swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama as the President of the United States of America, Indian diplomats are uneasy about what his presidency would entail for relations between the two countries.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Civil Society Mounts Peace Offensive

A visit to India by a delegation of civil society activists from Pakistan as part of a ‘peace offensive’ is expected to help keep the two South Asian neighbours from going to war over the Nov. 26-29 terror attacks on Mumbai city.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Kashmir Jittery Over Prospect of War

As war clouds hover over India and Pakistan, anxiety levels have risen in Kashmir, often described as the bone of contention between the South Asian neighbours

INDIA: ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ Approach to Pakistan

Exasperated by what it regards as "a continuing pattern of evasiveness and denial in Pakistan's response to the terrorist attack on Mumbai", India seems to be fashioning a two-pronged approach towards Islamabad to get it to act firmly against terrorist networks based on its soil.