Prime Minister Ashraf, in his farewell statement, said, “I am blessed and privileged to have had an opportunity to serve the great people of Pakistan. I have been touched by the warmth, affection and support extended to me during my stay in office”

The positive side of Pakistan is often overlooked in favour of negative news, the Pakistani Consul-General says as expatriates from that country celebrate their National Day today.The Embassy of Pakistan, the consulate and community organisations prepared a variety of programmes to mark National Day.

The United States looks forward to timely, free and fair elections in Pakistan that will mark the country's first civilian-to-civilian democratic transition, the State Department said. "As you know, the Pakistani parliament is planning to complete its term tomorrow (Saturday). We look forward to timely, free and fair elections that'll result in the first civilian, democratic transition in Pakistan's history," Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

The U.N.-backed Alliance of Civilizations will strengthen its role through mediation and fostering of cultural understanding through sports, arts and music, the head of the initiative, which gives priority to defusing tensions between Western and Islamic worlds. “The Alliance can become a major soft power tool to diffuse tensions and conflicts, especially those which are ethnically or identity based,” the High-Representative for the Alliance, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday, while outlining his priorities for this year.

Salman Rushdie was recently asked for his opinion on contemporary Indian fiction. The celebrated novelist surveyed the landscape for his interviewer, offering nods of approval to what is now a well established range of Indian writing in English. But it wasn’t as attractive as what was happening across the border. “I actually think,” Rushdie said, “that the Pakistani stuff is more interesting.”

‘Shabash Pakistan’ is a nation-branding movement started by School of Leadership. ‘Shabash Pakistan’ is a series of three one-day sessions in four universities, which will be divided over three months the main target will be the undergraduate and graduate students.

The Fatima Jinnah Women University Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation in collaboration with the School of Leadership (SoL) has organised the second session of its nationwide campaign titled, ‘Shabash Pakistan’. Shabash Pakistan is a “nation-branding movement” started by the SoL.

As the Obama administration rethinks its strategy for South Asian engagement, and Senator John Kerry assumes his duties as Secretary of State, a more "naturalized" approach to diplomacy should be considered. Despite their many differences, South Asia's acrimonious nations are tied together by ecological factors which can provide fertile ground for regional cooperation, thereby building trust in other areas and reducing chances of greater conflict.