Summary
Today, Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, chairmen of Pakistan’s two largest parties agreed in principle to impeach President Pervez Musharraf. The agreement, however, is contingent on all coalition partners supporting the move. Just as there has been little-to-no “progress” on the reinstatement of the justices Musharraf sacked, it is just as unlikely that […]

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On July 26th, it was announced that Prime Minister Gilani’s cabinet had taken the decision to place the ISI under the complete control of the Interior Ministry. As our sources reported, uproar ensued in the military establishment and less than 24 hours later, the decision was reversed.
Zardari’s Miscalculation
It’s an open secret that Benazir Bhutto’s […]

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We at the Insider Brief would like to thank all of our readers for your patience during our brief hiatus. To make up for our absence, we’ll be introducing some new features and guest contributors in the coming weeks. In the meanwhile, expect some new posts as we attempt to make sense […]

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A military helicopter went down in South Waziristan today. All eight on board were killed including Major General Javed Sultan, the recently promoted commanding officer of Kohat garrison as well as two brigadiers. The official explanation from Islamabad is that the crash was due to “technical reasons.”
However, sources report that the helicopter was […]

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Late Saturday night during a Democratic Party debate, presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton stated that if elected president, she would propose joint US-British oversight of Pakistani nuclear weapons. Within hours, media outlets from New Hampshire to New Delhi had all picked up on the story, with headlines screaming, “Clinton Proposes Oversight of Pak Nukes.”
MISSION […]

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Informed individuals are reporting that the Bush administration will be quietly providing President Pervez Musharraf a list of minimum deliverables for him to accomplish in order to receive Washington’s stamp of approval for January’s general elections.
The list of requirements — as to what they are we can’t quite say — are being provided discreetly to […]

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We’d like to thank all our readers for making this blog as successful as it is. Your readership and support has earned the Insider Brief exposure and recognition in multiple venues -
The News: Reuters
With Gen. Ashfaq Kayani’s ascendancy to the role of Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Reuters published an article on Nov. 28th […]

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Casuistic Crisis
The world is fixated on the “crisis” in Pakistan spawned by Pres. Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule. The media is bombarding us with news that the regime is unstable, the nation is “plunging into chaos” and that the country’s nuclear weapons are at risk — frankly, nothing could be further from […]

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Apologies to all IB readers for my undue absence this week. A host of commitments, primarily work, have kept me away. I’ve also found that much of what’s been creating a buzz in the media hasn’t been that signficant in terms of impact (e.g. Imran Khan’s arrest). Most events, though interesting, will […]

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Editor’s Note: In a recent exchange with Gen. Aziz, I mentioned American willingness to throw financial and military resources at the US presence in Afghanistan to “finish the job.” Here’s his response.
“Finish the job,” you say. Hunt out Osama? Wrap up global terrorism?
Not long ago, you taught a set of values to […]

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Tonight, I have the pleasure of introducing the Insider Brief’s very first guest: Lieutenant General Shahid Aziz.
A retired general of the Pakistan Army, he has had an extraordinary military career that gave him a front row seat to some of Pakistan’s most pivotal events over the past decade, culminating in his role as Lahore Corps […]

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President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s gamble appears to be paying off. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry stands sidelined along with some of his recalcitrant colleagues, much of the fractured opposition is either detained or under arrest, and protests have been manageable. Though Benazir Bhutto appears to have entered the fray (now under house arrest), her actions […]

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The dust is settling after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in his capacity as Chief of Army Staff, placed the country in a state of emergency. Many are calling it a “State of Emergency (Plus)” or “Martial Law (Lite)” — this is just semantics — the fact of the matter is that the constitution […]

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