AMID some tough competition, Pakistan has a reasonable claim to the title of World’s Most Dangerous Nation. It has nuclear weapons, a large contingent of fundamentalists bent on wreaking chaos beyond its borders, a simmering conflict with the big power next door and a long history of unstable governments. The atomic armoury is there to stay; but, after an election on May 11th which propelled Nawaz Sharif to power for the third time (see article), there are good reasons to believe that the place may get stabler, calmer and more prosperous. Given Mr Sharif’s record, such optimism may seem odd. He was a dreadful prime minister in the...

  There is only one response that India can have to retired Pakistani Lieutenant General Shahid Aziz’s recent revelations regarding the Kargil War: “We always told you so.” In an article recently published in The Nation newspaper, the former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence’s analysis wing presents a riveting account of the Kargil War which debunks several Pakistani claims about that conflict. First and foremost, reiterating India’s long-held claims that the attack was initiated by the Pakistani Army, Lt Gen Aziz concedes, for the first time in popular Pakistani discourse, that it was indeed uniformed soldiers of...