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Pakistan's former cricket captain has taken on the intelligence agencies of India and Pakistan by telling them to stop undermining relations between the two countries.

Imran Khan, who visited the UK in September to promote his autobiography, A Personal History, is currently ranked as one of Pakistan's most popular politicians. If his popularity continues its upward trajectory, his political party, Tehreeq-e-Insaaf, could easily emerge as the country's largest political party in next year's general elections.

Speaking at the London School of Economics, Imran criticised what he described as the 'back-stabbing role' of South Asia's premier intelligence-gathering agencies, India's RAW and Pakistan's ISI.

He called for a 'stable relationship where all our problems are discussed politically, based on a dialogue around a table and with an end to the role of agencies', adding: 'Any issue about Kashmir should be dealt with on the table — no longer using militants. It hasn't worked.'

Asked specifically about India-Pakistan relations, he responded, 'As I've always maintained, you can't change your neighbours. You have to live with them in a civilized manner.

Imran went on to assert that Pakistan blames India for its troubles in Balochistan and India blames Pakistan for the unrest in Kashmir. But, asking his audience to look ahead, he predicted, 'The future is bright for South Asians.'

As far as Pakistan was concerned, Imran projected what he described as a 'soft revolution' through the ballot box when elections are held next year. He claims that his own party, Tehreeq-e-Insaaf, is number one in the tribal areas and in the last four weeks alone has attracted 350,000 new members.

He anticipated 'light at the end of the tunnel' due to greater political awareness than ever before, the existence of an independent Supreme Court and a vibrant, independent media.

Asked which Pakistani leader was his role model, he replied, 'Jinnah. The reason is that Jinnah never compromised on his goals. He was selfless. He was dying of TB, but never gave up.'

Imran also expressed admiration for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who, he said, didn't have a candidate-based party when he launched the PPP. 'He was expecting to win 15 seats, but he had the vote bank. Once an idea catches fire, the candidates run to you.'

Tributes to Tata's JLR triumph

One of India's most respected multi-nationals has won plaudits from investors and backers alike for its success in turning around a loss-making company and converting it into a profitable enterprise.

Back in 2008, Tata bought luxury UK-based car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from car giant Ford for £1.15 billion. At the time Land Rover was still a profitable concern, but Jaguar was said to be struggling.

At the time of the purchase a spokesman for Tata said, 'We are very pleased at the prospect of Jaguar and Land Rover being a significant part of our automotive business. We have enormous respect for the two brands and will endeavour to preserve and build on their heritage and competitiveness, keeping their identities intact.'

Three years later, Tata has more than kept its word. Not only have the two automobile brands kept their separate identities, but JLR — the popular acronym for the company — has posted record annual profits of more than £1billion on revenues of almost £10 billion.

Pleased company executives subsequently disclosed they had £1 billion in research and investment since 2009 and planned to continue spending at that level for the next five years. Hence the comment of JLR chief executive Ralph Speth, who recently commented that this investment will lead to 'the most ambitious product development programme in the history of the brands'.

JLR's success is explained by its success in tapping new markets in Asia and Russia for its products. In 2011 Land Rover sales rose 33 per cent in China and 61 per cent in India. Jaguar enjoyed a 70 per cent rise in Russia.

JLR's success story has also prompted Tata to go ahead with plans to build a new car factory with 750 jobs in the English city of Wolverhampton. When complete, this will be the biggest car factory to be built in the UK for 20 years, producing four cylinder engines for both Jaguar and Land Rover.

JLR's executive director Mike Wright said India would have been one obvious location for the new factory, but added, 'There are a whole host of factors that go in to these decisions…but on the balance of all those factors, we determined with the support of Tata Motors, in this instance, the UK was the best option.'

Tentative steps on the road to democracy

Myanmar is inching its way towards international respectability following limited concessions towards human rights activists and opposition politicians.

Although it calls itself an elected government following last November's controversial elections, Myanmar's ruling mix of civilians and ex-army generals still hold 1,996 political prisoners in 44 prisons and labour camps.

The signs of change became evident last July when the government, headed by former General Thein Sein, allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit three prisons. This was the first time in six years that the ICRC had been permitted to make such a visit.

Last August, Nobel Laureate and newly freed political leader Aung San Suu Kyi had her first ever face-to-face meeting with Thein Sein and the following day she was permitted to attend a meeting about poverty alleviation.

Zaw Oo, a Myanmar economist who attended the same meeting, told the media later that Suu Kyi was 'quite encouraged by the level of openness at the conference and wants to support the poverty alleviation efforts. It is one area where she and the government share a common interest without many ideological or political differences'.

Suu Kyi herself is more optimistic than she has been for a very long time. Her belief that more changes will be forthcoming follow the regime's decision in September to allow her to meet in Yangon with the family of the country's best known political prisoner, Min Ko Naing.

A spokesman for the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma subsequently commented, 'It was a visit to offer moral courage to Min Ko Naing's family and for him also.'

One day later Suu Kyi herself chose to comment on present day political realities, saying, 'The past situation is the past. The current situation is the current one and there has been some progress.'

After meeting US special envoy Derek Mitchell, she added, 'Due to the situation, [the US delegation] is also interested and so we exchanged our perspectives.'

The European Union has also responded to what it sees as signs of positive change. European Commissioner for International Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid Kristalina Georgieva, who visited Myanmar in September, told reporters after her two day visit, 'I was encouraged by the authorities' willingness to expand humanitarian access to more areas of Myanmar. The atmosphere in the country is different. We know there are agents for change.'

US allies poised to host drones

Ethiopia, Djibouti, the Seychelles and Saudi Arabia have emerged as the four US allies prepared to offer bases for Washington to carry out its new type of warfare against al-Qa'eda.

These four countries, which command the approaches to South Asia and the Middle East, are poised to allow the US to use their territories to send armed pilotless drones to carry out attacks on suspected al-Qa'eda bases in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The US base in the Seychelles had previously been used to fly surveillance drones over suspected al-Qa'eda bases. But from next month, according to diplomatic reports, the Seychelles and three other countries will also host armed drones to fly vast distances — up to 3,000 kilometres — to and from the relevant war zones.

Drone strikes started as part of a covert US war in North West Pakistan and Afghanistan. But what started as a few dozen strikes on high value targets have escalated dramatically. Now, as technology has improved, allowing drones to hover for days at a time, the number of strikes has gone up as well. Last year saw 118 drone strikes on targets inside Pakistan.

Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution in Washington was recently quoted as saying, 'In a lot of cases, they'll track that target not just for minutes, but for hours or days, getting a pattern of life — who's coming and going from that compound, where are they ? And then you get the strike.'

Another US expert, Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation, commented on what he called the least well kept secret in the history of secrecy. 'Everybody knows these are happening. Everybody knows the Pakistanis are involved in some way. Everybody knows we are doing it.'

According to US media reports, the drone programme was initiated by the CIA soon after al-Qa'eda fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan in 2001-2002. However, delays in assembling the programme, including negotiating air access deals with nearby countries, gave al-Qa'eda fresh opportunities to expand.

As the drone becomes the US government's weapon of choice, Washington is increasingly focused on the constellation of drone bases that are in the process of being built in South and West Asia.

A US military official quoted by Fox News says Saudi Arabia has a key role to play in this new type of warfare. The official, who has not been named, said, 'Operations in Saudi [Arabia] are [the] only new expansion to this plan. The rest has been working for over a year when we long ago realised the danger from AQAP [al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula].'

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