Apart from alleviating the material plight of the people, transforming the feudal mindset and operationalising reforms to induce fair play and social justice should be one of the long term priority areas for the civilian government in Pakistan.
The ISI threat assessment may be received with great enthusiasm in Western capitals and policy circles, but for observers from the subcontinent it is neither ‘fundamental’ nor a ‘shift’.
A clean-up operation by the Pakistan Army could actually end up sharpening the ethnic polarisation in the city, which in turn could lead to the conflagration that everyone in Karachi fears.
The anger and frustration of the people against the political parties and the nimble footed response of the Islamists will result in disaffection of people towards the state and rising support for the jihadis.
India should try and broaden its engagement with all sections of Pakistani society which is getting differentiated due to the simultaneous multiple crises in that country.
Indian strategists may well find that many of the tactical quandaries faced today by the US carrier fleets cruising through the Asia Pacific are destined to become those of the Indian Navy in the not-too-distant future. Devising an AirSea Battle concept would enable it to parry blows and reassert sea control.
The legal status of Gilgit-Baltistan, which is part of Jammu and Kashmir that is under Pakistani occupation, has remained undefined in successive Pakistani constitutions. Pakistan governs the region with ad hoc presidential ordinances, resulting in transitory political arrangements. It was Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who first introduced the so-called Northern Areas Governance Order of 1994, after shelving the draconian and inhumane Frontier Crimes Regulation, with which Pakistan ruled the region like a colony.
