With the 30-day deadline for restoring the judges expiring on Wednesday, senior leaders of the two parties, including Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, are trying hard to sort out their differences on modalities. Some progress was made during the talks, but there were unresolved issues, Sharif said adding, he expects the negotiations to conclude on Thursday.
The Pakistan government's coalition partners - PPP and PML-N - have 'agreed' to reinstate the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf in 2007, PPP chairman Asif Ali Zaradari said. The coalition partners had agreed to finalise modalities for restoring the judges in 30 days of assuming power. The deadline expired on Wednesday.
"We will hold elections in a fair and transparent manner," said Pervez Musharraf.
Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has expressed his will to get medical treatment of his choice in another country, citing the findings of his medical report which shows serious illness.
The warning came during US official Richard Boucher's fourth visit in a year.
Terrorism was a serious threat to Pakistan's peace, security and development, said Musharraf.
Burney, who is a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council, said that 'with so many facts in favour of Sarabjit and so little to justify the death sentence awarded to him, it seemed Sarabjit's biggest crime may have been his Indian nationality as no unbiased court would ever sentence a man to death in such a weak case'.
The kin of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Lahore jail, on Sunday expressed gratitude to the Pakistan government for proposing to President Pervez Musharraf that all death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment.The family will be making an application in the Pakistan High Commission on Monday for the permission to meet Sarabjit in jail.Kaur said former Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney has promised that he will appeal to Musharraf.
The execution of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Pakistan, has not been postponed further, a presidential spokesman said on Saturday. The hanging of Sarabjit was deferred for 30 days by President Pervez Musharraf last month so that Pakistan's new government could review his case following an appeal for clemency from the Indian government.
Interestingly, while the US embassy confirmed Rice's telephone calls to the Pakistan President, government officials remained tight-lipped about it. There was no word about it either from the Foreign Office or the Presidency.
Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gillani on Wednesday said that the fate of President Pervez Musharraf would be decided according to the Constitution while the judges deposed by him will be reinstated in the true spirit of an agreement reached between the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in this regard.Gillani, who belongs to the PPP, called on Sharif and his brother Shahbaz at their Raiwind estate in Lahore after addressing a business meet.
Amidst concerns expressed by India over the military operation in Balochistan, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said the action against tribals and nationalists in the province, who were agitating for more autonomy, would continue.
Pakistan's new government on Monday said it will create a balance between the powers of the President and the parliament, hinting at plans aimed at taming Pervez Musharraf.It is the government's strong desire to ensure democracy in the country and uphold the supremacy of the parliament while ensuring the independence of the judiciary, Election Commission and media, Gillani said at the Prime Minister's House.
Describing Kashmir and Palestinian issues as old disputes, Musharraf told teachers and students at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing that as far as Pakistan was concerned, "we are going on a bilateral approach with India"."We hope that good sense prevails on both sides to resolve this long standing dispute amicably between our two countries for the benefit of people of these two countries," Musharraf, who is on a six-day visit to China, said.
The new civilian and military strategy in Afghanistan, which was endorsed at the NATO meeting, would be incomplete without the full co-operation of surrounding states including Pakistan, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on the last day of his four-day visit to China.
Pakistan, with some help from China, will demand its share in the changing nuclear order.
'The deal between two individuals will not materialise unless it is expanded to all the major political parties on a specific national agenda.'
The death toll in rioting in Karachi on Thursday rose to 12 as the provincial government ordered a probe into the violence that erupted following clashes between lawyers supporting President Pervez Musharraf and their rivals. Six persons, including a woman, were burnt alive after a mob on Wednesday torched a building near the city courts that has the offices of several lawyers. Two other persons were shot dead in incidents of firing while four more succumbed to injuries.
In an interview with the local KTN station late on Saturday, Bhutto said, "We do not accept President Musharraf in uniform. Our stand is that, and I stick to my stand."
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will pay a six-day state visit to China from April 10, his first foreign trip since the new coalition government took over, during which several bilateral agreements are expected to be signed. New Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar will accompany Musharraf during the visit. It will also be the first trip abroad by the new ministers.
Pakistan National Assembly's newly-elected first woman Speaker Fehmida Mirza has said that President Pervez Musharraf may be impeached by a two-thirds majority if Members of Parliament favour such a move. "If Parliamentarians want to impeach Musharraf, they may do so with a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and the Senate," she said. "I'll see the matter is in accordance with the Constitution because I am a custodian of the National Assembly and not a party."
Signalling that it was ready for a showdown with President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's new government has said that the 'extra-constitutional steps' taken by him during emergency rule last year are not part of the Constitution, as Parliament is yet to endorse them. Naek said the coalition government led by the Pakistan People's Party is committed to reinstating the judges sacked by Musharraf, including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
"We believe that the new relationship between the Muslim world and the West has to be built on a dialogue and understanding, which would effectively deal with the threats to world peace," Musharraf said addressing the inaugural session of a meeting in Islamabad of the Standing Committee on Science and Technological Cooperation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
Lawyers now think that they are the watchdogs of the Constitution and judiciary.
'If there is a face-off between the army and people, the leadership may lose control of the army.'
The sequence of events since Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was suspended on March 9, which sparked a major crisis in the country.
The Pakistan Supreme Court on Friday reinstated suspended chief justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry to his post.
The bench last week said that the long drawn-out proceedings would end by July 20 and an order can be expected any time thereafter.
The ripples of Lal Masjid crackdown were felt mostly in tribal areas of NWFP like Malakand Agency and Bajour.
"Pakistan is fighting a war against terrorism on principles. India blaming Pakistan for Mumbai bomb blasts is regrettable," Musharraf said during a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
'No compromise would be made on peace and writ of the law will be ensured all over the country at all costs,' Dawn News television quoted him as saying during visit to provincial capital Quetta.
A total of 328 MPs of the 342-member National Assembly were sworn in by outgoing Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, after which the House offered special prayers for slain former premier and Zardari's wife Benazir Bhutto who was killed in a suicide attack on a pre-poll rally in December. Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif, who did not contest the election, watched the proceedings from the gallery reserved for guests.
The Bush administration said the Pakistani authorities themselves have to deal with the situation arising out of the standoff between the military and the radicals led by Lal Masjid clerics.
The deceased have been identified as a reporter of Daily Markaz, a shopkeeper at the Aabpara market Abrez Ahmad, who was just closing his shop, three passersby and two students. One body is yet to be unidentified.
Tuesday's violent clashes unfolded a day after the severe snub the Pakistan Supreme Court gave to the Musharraf establishment.
Al Qaeda is stronger than it was earlier thanks to President Pervez Musharraf's decision in 2006 to cut a ceasefire deal with Islamic militants in the region bordering Afghanistan, US intelligence agencies said. With the Pakistani security forces staying out of the region, Al Qaeda militants were able to resettle and even re-establish some training camps in the area, says Michael Leiter, acting director of the National Counter Terrorism Center.
GAIL has already been appointed as the nodal agency for the pipeline in India.
Although Sharif wanted Musharraf to be arrested and tried in a court of law on charges of treason, Zardari has convinced his new political partner to allow Musharraf an honourable exit by requesting him to step down. The new allies, however. decided that if Musharraf refused to step down, they would seek his impeachment.
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