ISLAMABAD: Days before Pakistan’s powerful army chief was due to visit Washington for talks on regional stability and fighting militancy, General Raheel Sharif engaged in thinly veiled criticism of the nuclear-armed country’s civilian government. A terse statement from the army’s PR wing underlined the tension between Pakistan’s military and its civilian government, just as the United States prepares to receive Sharif weeks after the prime minister held talks there. After top generals met to review a major crackdown on extremists, the Pakistani military said it would be “undermined” if the government did not take “matching governance initiatives”. That was taken to mean police reform, action on militant financing and better governance of restive tribal areas. “He (Sharif) is foreign minister, prime minister, president and army chief all rolled into one,” said a Pakistani newspaper editor, while also questioning the military’s motives. “His greatest achievement is that he ha
Oct 27, 2015- Chinese officials have condemned a US ship's passage near disputed islands in the South China Sea as "illegal". The guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen breached the 12-nautical mile zone China claims around Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago. The freedom of navigation operation is a serious challenge to China's claims over the artificial islands. Its foreign ministry said the ship had been warned and characterised the act as a "threat to China's sovereignty". Lu Kang, the spokesman, added that Beijing would "resolutely respond to any country's deliberately provocative actions" and that the ship had been "tracked and warned" while on the mission to deliberately enter the disputed waters. Meanwhile, US Defence Department spokesman Cdr Bill Urban said that "the United States is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea in accordance with international law". The move was welcomed by several countries in the East Asia region, including the Philippines and Japan.
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