At least seven people were killed on Thursday in Pakistan in two separate blasts, including a suicide attack on the Pak-Afghan border apparently targeting soldiers.
At least 53 people have been killed and nearly 140 injured in Pakistan in separate attacks, including a deadly suicide bombing in restive Quetta city.
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.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has emerged as the single largest party in the legislative assembly elections in the strategically-located Gilgit-Baltistan region.
The Opposition parties need 172 members in the 342-member house to orchestrate the downfall of Prime Minister Khan.
Clearly, her father hopes that a successful tenure in Lahore will give Maryam the ballast to be prime minister after the next general election.
The prime minister needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition's bid to topple him.
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.
In Sialkot, people found five empty ballot boxes near Kashmir Park in the Cantonment area, the report said.
Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson in the ministry of external affairs, said India welcomed that the people of Pakistan have reposed their faith in democracy through general elections.
Bilawal Bhutto's political inheritance is his biggest asset as well as the biggest liability as he tries to make his mark in Pakistan politics. Challenging the Taliban militants is part of that strategy, though it matches with his political ideology. Shahzad Raza profiles the son of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari.
Two of his allied parties also withdrew their support and joined the ranks of the rejuvenated Opposition.
Mamnoon Hussain, the India-born nominee of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, is set to become the 12th president of Pakistan on Tuesday, succeeding incumbent Asif Ali Zardari.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday approved in principle the financing plan of the much-delayed 4500 megawatt Diamer-Basha Dam project on the Indus river in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and asked officials to expediate its construction.
Jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz with 64 and former president Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party with 43 seats are placed at number two and three respectively, the Election Commission of Pakistan said.
Against the backdrop of Pakistan's opposition to American drone strikes, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said the pilotless aircraft should be used only for gathering intelligence.
Security has been beefed up across Pakistan to fend off a looming threat by Taliban to launch the "biggest attack" on some unspecified important installation, officials said on Monday.
At least 28 people including a provincial legislator were on Tuesday killed and over 60 others injured when a suicide bomber targeted a funeral at Mardan in the troubled northwest Pakistan.
PTI leader Naeenul Haq told media on Saturday night that consultations are on to complete the number game.
Playing down President Asif Ali's remarks that Pakistan 'created and nurtured' militants to achieve short-term objectives, the government on Thursday said the statement should be seen in the context of the situation that prevailed after Soviet forces pulled out of Afghanistan. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the President was referring to the period when the "West left Pakistan high and dry after the withdrawal of Soviet troops" from Afghanistan.
'Nawaz Sharif knows a coup in 2016-2017 will not only complete Pakistan's isolation, but even a whiff of instability will frighten the world into imagining another Islamic State-zone, and this in a fully nuclearised subcontinent,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Adiala jail authorities have limited the movement of Sharif after some prisoners started chanting slogans against him as he was out for a stroll in the courtyard of his barrack on Thursday morning.
Notwithstanding India's objection, Pakistan on Monday held legislative assembly elections in the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region amid tight security.
United States President Barack Obama secretly offered Pakistan in 2009 that he would nudge India towards negotiations on Kashmir in lieu of it ending support to terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Taliban, but much to his disappointment Islamabad rejected the offer.
An Indian intelligence officer told rediff.com, "It's very well possible that when Zardari was out of the country Gilani took a hawkish stand to please the army chief General Ashfaq Kiyani. Right now, a hard stand against anyone perceived to be softer on India or America makes good politics in Islamabad."
Opposition leader Imran Khan on Sunday again demanded that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif quit for 30 days to allow an independent probe into alleged rigging in last year's polls, hours after the government outrightly rejected the proposal to end the crippling political deadlock.
Ahead of Premier Li Keqiang's maiden visit to Islamabad, China on Thursday ruled out any change in bilateral ties with the new Pakistan government led by Nawaz Sharif, saying the "all weather" relationship will continue.
A simple explainer to the Indus Water Treaty.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday struck down National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri's controversial move to dismiss a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a major blow to the cricketer-turned politician who is now likely to face a no-trust vote in parliament after the ruling.
The blast occurred in the mosque in the Police Lines area around 1.40 pm when a suicide bomber present in the front row during the Zuhr (afternoon) prayers blew himself up, security officials said.
Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric who was a surprise winner in the recent elections, took oath on Sunday as Iran's seventh president at a ceremony attended by a galaxy of world leaders, including Vice President Hamid Ansari, with which he has pledged to expand ties.
A ceremony to launch Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai's book was scrapped after the government of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province said it could not provide security for the event.
These are obviously not 'organic' desertions but brought about under intense military pressure, post the 9/5 arrests. It seemed as if the party was being dismantled the same way it was brought into power!, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
The Pakistani election on July 25 has a strong Indian flavour and connection, says Vivek Shukla.
Beijing's political risks are also escalating because of a renewed wave of public anger in many parts of Balochistan against human rights abuses by Pakistani troops deployed to crush the low-intensity insurgency in the province, the report said.
'The generals couldn't care less about political corruption, being complicit themselves.' 'Coup d'etats are out of fashion.' 'Their only desire is backroom control,' says Sunil Sethi.
The Pakistani Supreme Court ordered for a joint investigation team to probe the allegations of money laundering against his family.
Opposition leader Imran Khan's political party on Monday decided to withdraw its lawmakers from the National Assembly and all provincial assemblies except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, piling pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to quit, even as efforts by the ruling PML-N to reach out to anti-government protesters failed.
The 5-day political stand-off between the Pakistan government and anti-Sharif protestors intensified on Monday as efforts by the ruling PML-N to reach out to Opposition leader Imran Khan and cleric Tahir-ul Qadri failed with both the leaders remaining adamant on the ouster of the embattled prime minister.
Legendary Pakistani philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, who had dedicated his life to humanity and serving the poor, died in Karachi from renal failure. He was 92.
