Daud Khattak is managing editor of RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.
One of the many religious minorities whose plight is documented in the latest U.S. State Department report on religious freedom is the Ahmadiyya community, or the Ahmadis.
Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has brought tens of thousands of protesters to Islamabad and vows not to leave until the Pakistani government resigns. Who looks set to gain the most from the confrontation?
Influential Pakistani Muslim scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is world famous for his 2010 fatwa against terrorism. Now, he wants to lead a millions-strong march on Islamabad on January 14 to demand clean parliamentary elections.
Washington has placed a $10 million bounty on one of Pakistan's most prominent radical Islamist leaders. But with no charges against him in Pakistan, can the bounty lead to his arrest?
For six weeks, Pakistan has blocked NATO supply trucks from entering Afghanistan. Now, as Islamabad looks to reset ties with NATO, there is still no certainty about when the border will reopen.
Thousands of truck drivers have found themselves stuck in the road in Pakistan. But it's not road conditions that are preventing them from crossing into Afghanistan to deliver their cargos, it's politics.
Instead of focusing on the real issue confronting Pakistan, the media and political leaders create hype to arouse anger among the general public and divert attention from the real issue: Who has been managing Pakistan's policy with respect to Afghanistan?
The recent wave of street battles in Karachi, which killed 120 people this month, seems to have subsided, for now. The way it did tells a lot about its causes.
If Washington were to seize the chance to mediate a genuine and lasting piece in South Asia, Daud Khattak argues, Pakistanis would undoubtedly have a very different attitude toward America's role in the region.
To be sure, anti-Americanism still abounds in the Pakistan. Yet so far no prominent political leader or major political or religious party has called for protests against Osama bin Laden's killing by U.S. forces on May 2.
To hear the Americans and Europeans talk, it’s the beginning of the end game in Afghanistan. The United States and its allies are rushing for the exit.
The majority of Pakistani analysts who stress the need for negotiated settlement of all disputes between India and Pakistan more than they did in the past are of the view that Singh's invitation and Gilani's acceptance can prove an icebreaker.
The cold-blooded murder of Shahbaz Bhatti, the only minister in the Pakistani cabinet representing minorities, is not the first such killing and is unlikely to be the last.
No one can say for certain what will happen, but it is clear that the mounting pressure from the PML-N, the Pakistan People's Party's key political adversary, will further paralyze the Pakistani government's ability to make decisions. Whether or not the situation produces early elections, any persistent crisis could pave the way for forces ready to resort to extra-constitutional measures.
Despite the casualties and sacrifices of the security forces, their strategy is simply not working. And the repeated reemergence of Taliban militants in areas that have been victoriously proclaimed "cleared" has led ordinary Pakistanis to question the government's sincerity.
The most troubling aspect of the killing of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer is the doubt it casts over the future of religious minorities and the vast majority of moderate and progressive elements that have been resisting the hard-liners.
The Pakistan People's Party government is likely to continue in power, mainly because of differences among opposition groups and the eagerness of others to get a share of power in the government.
Since the beginning of its so-called war on the Taliban, the main government tactic has been to send army troops into an area and compel the local to form volunteer militias to fight the Taliban and other militants.
The ever-worsening violence in Karachi, the commercial hub of Pakistan, seems to be pushing the country increasingly toward political instability, and is threatening to undermine its fight against the emboldened Taliban in the northwest.
RFE/RL's Daud Khattak argues that secular forces in Pakistan are in retreat in the face of growing Taliban violence, while religious parties are again fomenting anti-Americanism.
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