Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the man ousted by Pervez Musharraf in the 1999 army coup, has won a decisive victory in the Pakistani parliamentary elections. His victory itself came as no surprise, but the margin was much greater than anticipated, putting his PML-N party within shouting...

Arriving at the airport in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, reminds one of the vast gulf between the First and Third World.  Chaotic, frenetic, disorganized, dilapidated—when I visited a couple months ago I almost longed for New York’s JFK airport, which I normally loathe.  The government is...

   Nawaz Sharif tells President Obama about Pakistan’s special relationship. Source: New York...

Pakistan suffers from enduring political violence, and it is a credit to the people of that country that they turned out in the millions to vote in elections on May 11. Despite this triumph of the people’s determination, there are still far too many people who want to derail the democratic...

The tough test of character comes in a waiting room. We are all heroes in a drawing room, stoking plans toward fantasy as far as the tensile strength of imagination will permit. While waiting, the lacklustre kill time and die of boredom . The ambitious dread the possibility that time will...

There is good news from Pakistan. After Nawaz Sharif was displaced as prime minister in 1999, it seemed Pakistan would always have a cycle of democratic rule cut short by military dictatorships. Now, at last, we have for the first time a transition from one legitimately elected government to...

One small step forward for Nawaz Sharif, the new election winner, but one big step forward for Pakistan. The religious parties and their militant, sometimes violent, followers have won so few votes they will play no significant role in parliament. The overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s...

Pakistan has voted for continuity in replacing one conservative party with another at the national level and rejecting the radical message of a charismatic hero. A new government also comes in a year when the three most powerful men in Pakistan are leaving their jobs. For now, no change in...

Toppled in a 1999 military coup, jailed and exiled, Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif has made a triumphant election comeback and looks set to form a stable government capable of implementing reforms needed to rescue the fragile...

Less than 48 hours before Pakistan’s historic democratic elections on May 11 — which saw former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif re-elected — Pakistani police gathered at the Islamabad home of New York Times correspondent Declan Walsh. They had Walsh sign for a letter from the...

The first time Nawaz Sharif became prime minister of Pakistan was almost a quarter-century ago. His second term was ended 14 years ago by a military coup that drove him into exile. Now he’s back, a good deal older —but is he any wiser? Pakistanis seem to think so—or at least Punjabis do....

Pakistan’s elections have returned Nawaz Sharif to power nearly fourteen years after he was deposed by Pervez Musharraf, and imprisoned, before he was allowed to slip away to exile in Saudi Arabia. Twice removed as PM with less than half his term completed, will this be third time...

Now that we know Nawaz Sharif will succeed Raja Pervez Ashraf as the next prime minster of Pakistan, it’s worth noting that Pakistan has never seen a democratic transition as smooth as the one set to take place between the outgoing Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the newly elected Pakistan...

From its beautiful temples to its stunning mountain ranges, there’s a lot to see in Pakistan. But one of its lesser known attractions is the vibrantly painted trucks that can be spotted travelling around the country. As far from the traditionally dull looking arctic lorries as its...

There is good news from Pakistan. No, really. The country often referred to as “the most dangerous place on earth” is a caldron of violence, religious extremism and nuclear danger. But on Saturday, Pakistan passed a major democratic milestone. Its national parliamentary elections...

Nawaz Sharif is back in Pakistan’s top job—for the third time. Sluggish economic growth, widespread crippling power cuts, daily political violence and a possible IMF bailout are all big problems he will have to deal with. So what can we expect from this wealthy steel tycoon? First, he’s not...

Electorates in Pakistan have made a forceful point. The people have voted for manifesto and candidates whom they believed were worth representing them. For the first time in history, vote hasn’t been cast on sympathy basis. People, despite their limitations and personal political...

Nawaz Sharif is the comeback kid of Pakistani politics. With his party’s electoralvictory, he is poised to become prime minister for an unprecedented third time. The Sharif odyssey has been remarkable—but now we will see if he can convert his victory into a new beginning for his deeply...

The news from Pakistan is often terrible, as it was last week when the government expelled a New York Times bureau chief. There was also violence leading up to the parliamentary election over the weekend. At least Pakistan did manage to have an election in which about 60 percent of voters...

  As Nawaz Sharif gets set for a third term as Pakistan’s prime minister, he has reached out to India, saying he would be very happy to have Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his oath-taking ceremony. Dr Singh, too, has responded to Mr Sharif, having invited the latter to India. As...

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former president, is back home after more than four years in self-imposed exile. He is hoping to re-assert his influence ahead of the country’s elections in May. Musharraf touched down in Karachi on Sunday morning, despite the possibility of arrest,...

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Related External Links A Look At The Bloody War In <b>Pakistan's</b> South <b>Waziristan</b> Drones Not Ours, Says No. 1 Drone Exporter United States | Vanity <b>…</b>...

  India and Pakistan are among the most important countries in the 21st century. The two nations share a common heritage, but their relationship remains tenuous. The nuclear rivals have waged four wars against each other and have gone to the brink of war several times. While India is...

Abdul Amir (as we’ll call him), a chemistry teacher in Quetta, Pakistan, was taking an afternoon nap on Feb. 16 when his house began to shake and the earth let out an almighty roar. His mother and sisters started screaming and ran out of the house, but by the time they gathered in the...

When I told my assistant Bagus that I was going to Pakistan, he was worried.  His perception of Pakistan was a terrorist hotbed. A Western friend even asserted Pakistan was “not far from collapse” with a deteriorating security situation. He suggested I take a flak jacket, as “things are...

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Pakistan’s collusion with violent Islamist groups has been to the detriment of its security and regional stability. Between 1990 and 2001, while the United States was engaged elsewhere, Pakistan condoned a malignant symbiosis between the Taliban and al Qaeda. Unless those ties are...

  Each week, the Guardian Weekend magazine’s editorial team choose a picture, or set of pictures, that particularly tickle their fancy. This week, their choice is Pakistani women, by Geoff Brokate and Kaye...

A revolution averted: as we prepared to fly to Pakistan, we realized that the country was being held hostage by a charismatic Canada-based cleric, Dr. Tahirul Qadri, chief of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran. He held a march with 40-50,000 of his supporters in Islamabad with the singular objective of...

As Pakistan gears up for expected national elections in May, there are 35 million new voters on the rolls, most of them between the ages of 18 and 25. For decades, the country has been ruled by two political dynasties – or by the military. Party leaders have depended on political favors...

Governments of the world’s leading democracies still continue to gloss over Pakistan’s minority rights violations One of the quintessential functions of a modern state is to foster the multi-faceted development of all its citizens. Ironically, however, few states fulfill this function in the...

Facts speak. Fictions do not. Hence one’s focus is on ground reality: the hot and hostile terrain faced by the Indian defence personnel — rather than on the high table of diplomatic posturing. It is time to analyse the psyche of Pakistan’s army in the light of the recent provocation on the...

On December 16, 2012, Hafiz Saeed, Chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the front organization of the proscribed terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) tweeted, “We want to tell India, if few people consider you friend in the government – whole Pakistan knows you are an enemy.” Saeed appears to be...

On the first of many visits I have made to Pakistan in recent years, I passed armed guards and went through a metal detector to attend a splendid nighttime wedding reception with hundreds of flower garlands strung from the ceiling of a colossal, well-lit tent. Endless carpets had been laid on...

The movie “Zero Dark Thirty” has created controversy in the U.S. over its depiction of the Central Intelligence Agency’s 10-year hunt for Osama bin Laden, who was shot dead in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in 2011. So what does Pakistan make of the movie? Most Pakistanis will never have...

Pakistan is a country beset with political difficulties, but they could be of secondary importance to its economic woes. While much attention has been devoted to the dramatic Supreme Court move to order the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on charges of corruption and recent...

That is why you will hear a lot of fictionalised rhetoric about what to expect from Pakistan on their tour of South Africa. The old joke about how much will depend on which Pakistan shows up will be dusted off and told again. It is not funny any more but some will laugh. The innuendo about...

Islamabad has been trying to send signals over the last few months indicating that it is pursuing a new course of action, both internally and externally, that is more in line with international norms. Pakistan has tried to improve its relationship with India. It has also indicated a...

Cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri made a sudden landing in Pakistan from Canada, addressed a large gathering and threatened the Government in Islamabad with dire consequences if it did not quit. Then he returned Though the ‘Pakistan Spring’, launched with fanfare at Lahore on December 23, 2012, fizzled...

On Jan 10, over 100 people were killed and 200 injured in a spate of bombings in Quetta that were clearly targeted against the Shia Hazara community. Just 10 days earlier, a convoy of buses carrying Shia pilgrims was targeted at Mastung. On Jan 18, a Shia legislator belonging to the Muttahida...

Last week, tens of thousands of protestors descended into the heart of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, demanding that the federal government make sweeping electoral reforms and then give way to an army and judiciary-endorsed caretaker government that would oversee general elections. The...

The ground is shifting in Pakistan again. In a few weeks — if not days — the five-year-long experiment that has seen a fledgling democracy take root in a hitherto largely militaristic soil, could well be uprooted. In a carefully crafted bid to transplant a malleable caretaker government in...

You know an economic crisis is severe when, in a conservative Muslim society, you encounter not only squeegee men, but hijab-covered squeegee women at traffic lights, as you do here in Pakistan. In Karachi, the lights stay on. In Islamabad there are black-outs and load shedding, but cars and...

Distracted by the deadly violence in Mali and Algeria, no one seems to be paying adequate attention to the tragicomedy under way in Pakistan. This matters because events of the last week demonstrate without equivocation that Pakistan is an utterly failed state — but one that possesses...

The mood of the nation after the beheading and mutilation of two Indian soldiers at the Line of Control was such that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to break his silence and say that after the “barbaric act there can be no business as usual with Pakistan’. It must have been a personal...

Pakistan has forever been a crises state with Allah, Army and America calling the shots in its state of affairs. With Tahir-ul-Qadri taking the centre stage this week calling for the dismissal of the civilian regime, Utpal Kumar analyses why Islamabad always finds itself in such a mess He...

We should see the demand by Tahirul Qadri to have more moral politicians in Pakistan as part of a sequence. The charismatic religious scholar wants leaders to pass the test of article 62 of the constitution. It requires of a legislator that: “(d) he is of good character and is not commonly...

Imagine two nations that have more in common than most families. Then imagine four wars and a stockpile of nuclear weapons on both sides. That is just part of the backstory each time India and Pakistan meet to play cricket. The two countries recently fielded teams for a three-game series in...

The recent ceasefire violations on the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir can be interpreted in two ways: as a series of tit-for-tat responses that spiralled out of control, or as the opening shot in the next round of hostilities between India and Pakistan. The two versions have differing...

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in London. FROM a base in converted shipping container, placed on Islamabad’s main thoroughfare, Tahir ul Qadri, a populist cleric who has been...

Krista Mahr is TIME’s South Asia Bureau Chief and correspondent in New Delhi, India. She has worked in TIME’s Tokyo bureau and Time Asia’s headquarters in Hong Kong. Leaders in Pakistan were thrown into crisis-management mode this week as tensions over border skirmishes with...

Thank heavens, the “war-mongers” on the Indian side have piped down, with the Pakistan Army promising to exercise restraint. There can be no denying the excesses of the Pakistan army in brutally killing two Indian soldiers at the Line of Control. But an eye-for-an-eye (or ‘ten heads for one...

The construct of ‘retaliatory action’ indicates revenge — inflicting injury on the adversary to emotionally sublimate oneself. Act we must, but in a rational rather than emotional mode. The response should be designed and calibrated to achieve specific objectives to further India’s national...

As protests escalate in Pakistan before the spring elections, former CIA officer and Brookings Institution fellow Bruce Riedel offers a glimpse into the country’s complex political...

  Today on The Social Network we discuss the social media reaction to Pakistan Foreign Affairs Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar. The comments went beyond mere outrage and anger at her ‘warmongering’ comments, to humour, and misogynistic comments about her youth, her looks, and of...

The winds of change are stirring in Islamabad. On Monday 14 January, tens of thousands of people joined Dr Tahirul Qadri (pictured), a Pakistani-Canadian Sufi scholar, in Lahore on a ‘million man’ march towards Islamabad. Late last year, Qadri seemingly appeared out of nowhere,...

As an ordinary citizen you cannot think of giving an ultimatum to a Government, that too a democratically elected civilian one. It can be the order of the day for some nations if their Army gives the ruling politicians final word on how business should be run. But, never can that order be...

The political crisis in Pakistan threatens to trigger yet another period of instability in the country. The three-way power struggle between the military, the government and the courts once again exposes the weaknesses of the country’s democratic institutions, say German commentators....

Every time the world’s attention turns to Pakistan, it seems like another wheel has fallen off the bus. The country is seeing a new wave of suicide bombings and Taliban threats, while new tensions with neighboring India have arisen once again over Kashmir. Last week brought some of Pakistan’s...

  Akbar Ahmed, former Pakistani ambassador to the UK, talks about the court ruling ordering the arrest of the prime...

  We take a close look at the increasingly tensed relationship between India and Pakistan as Pakistan’s own domestic politics spells uncertainty; all this on a day when many are asking what caused the hardening of stance by the Indian government. Speaking to NDTV, PM Manmohan Singh...

Pakistan’s reason for existence is anti-India. Unlike India, whose reason for existence is the idea of India (secularism, peace, prosperity, etc), the Pakistani state lives only for the sake of enmity to India. This means the idea of Pakistan is bankrupt beyond enmity to India. Till the...

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On October 16, 2012, the petrified residents of Churunda village, virtually sitting on the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector in Jammu and Kashmir, raised white flags and used loud hailers from a local mosque pleading to trigger-happy Pakistani troops to stop firing and shelling so that...

Pakistan’s civilian leaders fight back after a battering by a populist cleric, courts and, behind it all, the army JUST before setting off for their “long march” to Islamabad, on January 13th, supporters of Tahir ul Qadri, a populist cleric who has burst onto Pakistan’s political scene, cut...

The ability of Jinnah to unite a series of political expediencies with the popular appeal of Islam to demand a separate state for the Muslim people, has brought him the accolade ‘the founder of Pakistan’. Muhammad Ali Jinnah with Mohandas Gandhi in Bombay, September 1944.The...