GEO News reports that Baitullah Mehsud, the amir of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan is dead, apparently due to natural causes. Mehsud had been sick in recent days and reportedly slipped into a coma. Pakistan’s commemorate Eid ul-Fitr today (Wednesday), marking the end of the month of Ramadan. The passing of this murderous terrorist, if true, [...]

Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha has replaced Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj as director general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Australian reports that Washington had been pressing Islamabad/Rawalpindi hard to replace Taj as late as Sunday night. President Asif Zardari reportedly met with CIA Director Michael Hayden this weekend in New York. What they discussed [...]

Pakistan, arguably the most important U.S. foreign policy issue right now, took up a few minutes in last night’s one and a half hour presidential debate. In short, the discussion lacked substance. It was mostly a regurgitation of dated talking points from last year’s party debates. As such, the brief exchange confirmed the pre-existing positions [...]

Much to the confusion and ire of Pakistanis, the country’s de facto Interior Minister Rehman Malik was named the recipient of the “International Peace Award 2008 for War against Terrorism.” The awarding body is the International Human Rights Commission.  The name suggests that it is a legitimate, international organization perhaps based in New York, Geneva, [...]

On Monday, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani visited Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battlefield. It was his second publicized visit to the line of control since assuming leadership of Pakistan’s army. KAYANI: A “NATIONAL CONSENSUS” ON KASHMIR Both visits occurred after controversial statements from President Asif Ali Zardari regarding the Kashmir conflict.  On [...]

Wonder what Mark Lyall Grant was up to? Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark write in the Guardian’s Comment is Free: “The Foreign Office has already played a vigorous and little known role in getting Zardari elected president: Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the FCO political director, used his offices to elegantly strong-arm Pakistani political factions exiled [...]

GEO News continues to confound me.  It’s worthy of praise and a major source of irritation.  Part of the Jang Group, it features some interesting talk shows and is usually first to break news in Pakistan. But all too often the issue of journalistic responsibility escapes the mind of its editors. Its absence is visible [...]

GEO News reported with great zeal that the U.S government agreed to stop attacks in Pakistan, after meeting Pakistan’s Ambassador Husain Haqqani. But taking a look at Haqqani’s direct quote shows that his meeting with the U.S. National Security Council yielded no change in administration policy. Haqqani said, “US officials have assured me not to launch [...]

GEO News reports that the People’s Party-led coalition government has ordered the vacation of the Islamabad home of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Farooq Naik, the former defense attorney of Asif Zardari now law minister, has said that more judges will be reappointed to the Supreme Court under fresh oaths.  It is clear that Chaudhry [...]