Skip to content

News & Articles

Articles and important news

Power: hard, soft and smart

  • by

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.
Read More »Power: hard, soft and smart

A CHILD NAMED THROOR

  • by

BY PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER

ali-sukhanver2“I am going to address a crowd of brainless dummies”, the Indian Union Minister Mr. Shashi Throor might have been thinking when he was getting his video-message recorded for the Young Indo-Pak Entrepreneurs Conference to be held at Jinnah Auditorium Islamabad on 29th October this year. The audience included 22 Indian delegates and officials of the Indian High Commission, including envoy TCA Raghavan. The rest of them were delegates from Pakistan, Pakistani officials, international media-men, and foreign diplomats. Mr. Throor began his video-address by emphasizing the importance and need to strengthen bilateral trade but later took a harder line and started suggesting to the Pakistani government what it must do for the improvement of its relations with India. He shifted all blame onto the shoulders of Pakistan by saying, “Incidents like the Mumbai attacks and the recent violations on Line of Control show a gap between Pakistan’s official statements and military Read More »A CHILD NAMED THROOR

Saudi nuclear weapons ‘on order’ from Pakistan

Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and believes it could obtain atomic bombs at will, a variety of sources have told BBC Newsnight.

While the kingdom’s quest has often been set in the context of countering Iran’s atomic programme, it is now possible that the Saudis might be able to deploy such devices more quickly than the Islamic republic, the BBC reported.

Earlier this year, a senior NATO decision maker told BBC Newsnight that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery.Read More »Saudi nuclear weapons ‘on order’ from Pakistan

NADRA plans to facilitate e-voting in next elections

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has planned to facilitate e-voting and interactive electronic thumb-voting in the next general elections, sources in Nadra said.

The Nadra has issued over two million Smart Cards during last ten months, adding that the Nadra continues to process Smart Cards without any break.

Sources in Nadra disclosed that the Nadra authorities have shown serious concern over a wrong impression published in various sections of the press on October 29, 2013 that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered ban on the issuance of Smart Cards. In fact, a division bench of the IHC on October 28, 2013, has ordered Nadra to maintain status quo about procurement of Smart Cards prior to October 9, 2013 decision till final disposal of appeal.Read More »NADRA plans to facilitate e-voting in next elections

Governor Punjab launches public liaison website

Punjab Governor Ch Mohammad Sarwar launched his official website on Thursday to expand his liaison with people by including the online medium for increasing his interaction with masses.

This website www.governor.punjab.gov.pk was formally launched as a means to post updates regarding governor’s activities, statements, policies and stance on various issues.

The inaugural message from Governor on the website was for promoting provision of clean drinking water to school children.Read More »Governor Punjab launches public liaison website

Challenge of wasteful passions

Article written by Mr. Zafar Hilaly, published in “THE NEWS” on 30th October 2013

James Stewart thought that he was successful if he played the part and the acting didn’t show. Well, there was precious little on view except acting during Nawaz Sharif’s Washington visit. As for the ‘acting’, that too was below par.

According to the script Obama was supposed to express his appreciation for Pakistan’s role in combating terrorism while looking Sharif in the eye. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that. He looked everyone else in the eye except Sharif, thereby prompting one wit to tweet: ‘it looks like Obama prefers to be somewhere else, with someone else’.Read More »Challenge of wasteful passions