WANA the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, which was once considered a base line of Taliban, has been found in a grip of political fever while heading towards the first ever party based elections in FATA. Contrary to this, in other parts of the country, candidates for upcoming elections of three mainstream political parties bore the brunt of violent incidents and many of them lost their lives. ...

  Landikotal April 17: The removal of the top bureaucracy in FATA is a challenge for the election commission. For holding free, fair and transparent elections in tribal regions, it is obligatory and imperative for the election commission of Pakistan to take notice as to why so far the top bureaucracy in FATA as well as in the tribal agencies working since long has not been removed as it has been done a ...

  The All Parties Conference (APC) convened by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islami Fazl faction (JUI-F) attended by 22 main political parties although announced to participate and support every peace effort engaging the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) although is a step in the right direction but has little chances of success. During the JUI-F APC majority of the participating 22 political parties and clerica ...

  As disagreement over the nature, composition and strength of foreign stabilizing force as well as Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), which would look after Afghanistan security after withdrawal of US-NATO forces from Afghanistan at end of 2014, have struck the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, and the consequences of this dilemma on Pakistan particularly amidst the ongoing insurg ...

  After a long time, the United States and its allies have been able to eliminate one of their most wanted Pakistani Taliban commanders, Maulvi Nazeer, through a drone attack in the South Waziristan putting Islamabad relations with the so-called pro-government Taliban on a collision course. Maulvi Nazeer was killed along with his six other commanders when their vehicle was attacked by missiles, fired f ...

  The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) seems to have lived up to its vows, expressed a few weeks back, of staging high-profile and staggering attacks, by launching multiple attacks on Peshawar International Airport the other day. As the attacks took place on Saturday December 15, and it was week-end, the writer also incidentally was in his hometown rather in the locality, just an hour before, where the ...

  The other day United States (US) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-operated Unmanned Vehicles (UMVs), commonly known as drones, eliminated another key Al Qaeda commander in the Af-Pak region by firing missiles at a house in a village Mubarakshi in Mir Ali tehsil (sub-division) of North Waziristan Agency. This time the victim has been identified as Sheikh Abu Zaid, who reportedly was the chief operati ...

  The other day some civil society organizations from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have expressed their displeasure over the pace of political and administrative reforms in the tribal areas and demanded that instead of introducing the so-called reforms in bits and pieces, the federal government must repeal the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) at once. Holding the FCR responsible for all t ...

  After the announcement from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that it would not disrupt the procession of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to South Waziristan as well as the public meeting in Kotakai town there should not be any reason for the government to disallow the march which could have deeply wholesome effects on the situation in the tribal agency in particular and the tribal areas i ...

  Although there has been much national and international attention on FATA in recent years but there has been negligible focus on the economy of the region particularly its complex and peculiar problems. Resultantly the conflict in FATA could not be realistically addressed and resolved. If one has to look into the root causes of the conflict in FATA the study could not be complete without taking into ...