A top Pakistani diplomat in the United States on Saturday said that Islamabad was aware that the peace deal with Taliban in the country's troubled Swat valley would not work but went ahead with it as a tactical move. Pakistan's ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, in a television interview, said even President Asif Ali Zardari knew about its result from the very beginning of the deal. He also said that such strategy could be repeated in the future.
A day after Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said his intelligence believes that Osama bin Laden is dead, the United States today said it has no information on that and would continue to hunt for the most-wanted terrorist of the world.
The PML-N, which is set to form a coalition government in Pakistan with the PPP, on Monday said it is opposed to senior PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim being made the prime minister because of his apparent proximity to the military regime. Senior PML-N leader Khwaja Muhammad Asif said his party has "serious objections" to Fahim being made the prime minister.
Reversing its earlier stand in an apparent bid to provide stability, Nawaz Sharif's PML(N) on Sunday decided to join the PPP-led coalition government and the two parties agreed to re-instate all the judges sacked by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf within a month of assuming power. The long-time foes clinched a power-sharing deal etching the contours of the new government at a one-to-one meeting between PPP chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif.
One of the advisors did not rule out the possibility of a new election after six months.
Slain Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto's much-talked about last book, which speaks of her vision for the Islamic world, will be launched in Washington on February 20. The book, which the former premier put together with the help of her long-time friend and associate Mark Siegel in the last few months of her life, will be released at the National Press Club. It will feature a short afterword by Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari and their children.
Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest next to her father's grave in this ancestral village on Friday, a day after she was assassinated in Rawalpindi. Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari, son Bilawal and two daughters -- Bhaktawar and Asia -- were present when her body was lowered in a grave at the family's white-domed mausoleum after funeral prayers. The body was earlier placed in a plain wooden coffin draped in the black, green and red flag of her Pakistan People's Party.
Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stayed away from the country as his mother and former premier Benazir's death anniversary was observed on Saturday across the country, giving credence to reports that he is having serious differences with his father Asif Ali Zardari.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Frankfurt for New York on a five-day visit to the US, during which he will address the UN General Assembly and hold bilateral talks with world leaders.
President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday offered peace talks to militants in Pakistan's troubled northwest even as security forces claimed to have killed more than 50 rebels in an operation in the tribal belt.
"Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has decided to rename the Prime Minister's Secretariat as Prime Minister's Office with immediate effect," said a brief statement issued by the premier's media office.
Laskar-e-Tayyiba founder Hafiz Saeed may not come up for discussion on April 8 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet Pakistan President Asif Ali Zaradari over lunch in New Delhi.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday publicly released the details of assets of key politicians, including that of Prime Minister Khan.
The Pakistan National Assembly's crucial session on a no-trust motion against embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan was adjourned on Friday without tabling of the resolution, amid vociferous protests from opposition lawmakers.
Locals drove Das to a hospital in nearby Mirpur Mathelo where he was treated for his wounds.
In a live-address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan also discussed a 'threat letter' that purportedly showed 'evidence' of a foreign conspiracy to topple his coalition government.
The blast occurred at an Imambargah located near the Qissa Khwani Bazaar area of Peshawar when the worshippers were offering Friday prayers.
Pakistan's top civilian and military leadership knew about Osama bin Laden's presence in the country much before the US Navy SEALs killed him in a raid in 2011, the nation's then defence minister has claimed.
Maryam told the charged workers that the days of trouble for Khan had begun.
Pakistan's election commission has formed a high-level committee to probe the explosive allegations levelled by a senior bureaucrat that widespread rigging aided by the judiciary and the top election body happened against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Barack Obama has said that he had ruled out involving Pakistan in the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout because it was an "open secret" that certain elements inside Pakistan's military, and especially its intelligence services, maintained links to the Taliban and perhaps even al-Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets against Afghanistan and India.
Earlier in the day, Nawaz Sharif resigned from the prime minister's office following disqualification from the Supreme Court in the Panamagate verdict.
As many as 174 members voted in favour of the motion in the 342-member House while members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were absent during the voting.
At least 14 people were killed and over 30 injured on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up amid scores of worshippers attending Friday prayers at a Shia madrassa on the outskirts of this city in Pakistan's restive northwest, officials said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday met President Mamnoon Hussain here and discussed the current political crisis caused due to anti-government protests spearheaded by opposition leader Imran Khan and cleric Tahirul Qadri, demanding the premier's resignation.
The move came as the Pakistan government decided to curtail the space given by the press to jailed politicians like Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Zardari.
Former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has said he would prefer going to jail rather than appear before Pakistan's anti-corruption watchdog that is investigating graft charges against him.
There was no progress in the formation of a new coalition government in Pakistan on Tuesday as top leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) failed to agree on a power-sharing deal in their latest round of talks, indicating deepening fissures in the country's political landscape.
Polling started in Pakistan's National Assembly and four other provincial centres on Tuesday to elect a new president who will replace incumbent Asif Ali Zardari in September.
'The real purpose of President Obama writing to President Zardari,' Husain Haqqani tells Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa, 'was to seek a turnaround on terrorism -- that Pakistan, whatever its grievances, cannot have jihadi groups operating openly on its soil.'
The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that independent candidates, a majority of them supported by the PTI secured 101 seats, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 75 seats, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) getting 54 seats, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) bagging 17 seats.
Clearly, her father hopes that a successful tenure in Lahore will give Maryam the ballast to be prime minister after the next general election.
'As Rana is not an Indian citizen, our leverage on the US system -- whether it's their judiciary or the executive -- is very limited in that sense.'
Shehbaz, 72, who was the consensus candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), received 201 votes, 32 more than what was required to become leader of the House in the 336-member Parliament.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Sharif, 70, and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice-chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday filed their nomination papers for the post.
The Pakistan Foreign Office gave no reason for Lodhi's removal in a statement late on Monday.
The United States long-suspected Pakistan of sheltering Mullah Omar and even confronted then President Asif Ali Zardari in 2011
The Opposition parties need 172 members in the 342-member house to orchestrate the downfall of Prime Minister Khan.
A tense standoff continued in Pakistan on Saturday as overnight talks between the government and protesters demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's resignation made little headway in breaking the political logjam.
The prime minister needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition's bid to topple him.
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