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Afghan officials begin handing over security check posts to Taliban

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US alarmed by surprising move

December 23, 2013: In a surprising development the Afghan security officials have begun handing over several security check-posts to Afghan Taliban peacefully.

The latest action by Afghan security forces took the U.S. officials by storm and U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had to make a statement that he was concerned by “unconfirmed reports that Afghan forces turned some security checkpoints over to the Taliban.”
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Pakistan in search of new life

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Dr Mahboob A Khwaja

Nothing has changed over the years except Pakistan is floating in a bubble of political, social, economic and strategic entanglement and it is just a matter of time that foreign masters could undermine its flight without notice. Pakistanis are camouflaged into a world of fantasy and dream that crime-riddled corrupt politics of the few could rescue them from catastrophic consequences unthinkable to conventional wisdom at the present.
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GOODBYE, MY LORDSHIP AND OUR TWO OVERSEAS FUNDS

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BY MUHAMMAD JAVED

Despite huge voices there is so far no answer as to from where came Rs. 5.5 billion recently paid for settling the circular debit. Was this through further extra printing of currency notes or taken/diverted from any other fund/source? Though Sheikh Rasheed’s question in the assembly was answered but according to Rauf Klasra the two page answer was complete with undesired technical definitions lacking any hint to the real question from where came this money.  Katrina Hussain the anchor commented, this might have been taken “from different funds.  Sheikh Rasheed still Read More »GOODBYE, MY LORDSHIP AND OUR TWO OVERSEAS FUNDS

Power: hard, soft and smart

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By Ikram Sehgal

Ikram-SehgalPower is nothing more than the ability to get others to do what you want. For doing that you require tools of coercion or payment, or ‘hard power’, and tools of attraction, or ‘soft power’.

Soft power is when a state, an organisation or even an individual exercises power with means other than violence and force, being able to convince or persuade others to follow your example, to want what you want, rather than coercing them. Persuasion, diplomacy, foreign aid, cultural influence (like movies and music) etc are some resources of soft power.
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