I have a blog post on ForeignPolicy.com’s AfPak Channel on the recent violence in Karachi. Here’s a snippet: “The Arabian and Indo-Australian tectonic plates meet near Karachi, the Pakistani port city inhabited by at least 15 million people. But in recent weeks, Karachi has been reeling from violent seismic activity along its ethnic and political [...]

The head of Pakistan’s largest political party is on summer vacation from college. He is now free to interact with his people. He spoke to his darker minions of blood and sacrifice and then returned to his air conditioned suite, played Xbox 360 while texting his British girlfriend and scarfing down some Kentucky Fried Chicken. [...]

PML-N Leader Nawaz Sharif has announced that his party will be leaving the governing coalition completely and will sit in the opposition.  He made this statement in a press conference that is occuring as I write.  The PML-N will also put forward the name of Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, a judge who retired when Pervez Musharraf took [...]

The national reconciliation and consensus bus in Pakistan continues to move forward at a steady pace. Today, the country witnessed two, potentially historic, meetings: the first between senior military and civilian officials, and the second between the People’s Party (PPP) and long-time rival Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). KAYANI BRIEFS CABINET AND POLITICIANS ON FATA This [...]

Round Two of the Fahim-Zardari talks have just ended.  Fahim spoke to the media outside Zardari’s Islamabad home.  He said there’s no division within the People’s Party, but maintained that he’s the party’s candidate for prime minister.  This contradicts a GEO News report claiming that the PPP has decided that its next prime minister will be from Punjab (most [...]

Roughly two weeks have passed since Pakistan’s elections, but parliament and the provincial assemblies have yet to convene, governing coalitions haven’t been finalized, and Pakistan’s largest party hasn’t chosen its prime ministerial nominee. The sluggish pace of the transition was expected, though if the status quo prevails into the weekend or next week, those interested [...]

People’s Party Chairman Asif Ali Zardari held a press conference around an hour ago. He accepted the election results and said his party will form a “national consensus ” government with “friends” who have accepted a set of stipulations.  He apparently listed only one of them, which was to push for a United Nations investigation [...]

On Friday, the People’s Party will resume formal campaigning as the forty day mourning period of Benazir Bhutto’s death comes to an end. Bhutto’s book, “Reconciliation,” will be released on February 12, though critical excerpts have already been published in the Sunday Times. The publication timing serves to project the party’s outreach outside of Pakistan [...]

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari read the will of his mother, Benazir Bhutto, earlier today in Pakistan.  It designated his father, Asif Zardari, as chairman of the party, who then reportedly declined the position, offering it to Bilawal.  They will co-chair the party.  Sherry Rehman, a leading PPP figure, has been on the record stating that Bilawal [...]

Benazir Bhutto recently blamed Pakistan’s intelligence services for the fractures emerging in her party’s elite. The former prime minister is highly concerned with cohesiveness of the PPP, making party members take loyalty oaths on the Qur’an. Though the intelligence services have previously and will continue to cause defections from her party, Bhutto alone bears responsibility [...]