Voicing concern at the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan's restive tribal areas, the US on Tuesday asked the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to narrow its differences with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party over the operation launched against militants in the country's northwest.
Counting has begun for the election which will be the second democratic transition of power in the nation's 70-year history.
With influential cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri descending on Islamabad with swarms of his supporters, Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday lobbied with top political leaders, including Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif, to uphold the democratic system.
Sources in the PML-N told the Press Trust of India in Lahore that Nawaz Sharif decided to withdraw himself from the race for the prime minister's office for his daughter and political heir, Maryam Nawaz, 50.
The Pakistan People's Party, heading the coalition, decided to keep the ministerial portfolios, except for Finance, vacant hoping to bring around Nawaz Sharif's party which pulled out its ministers after the deadline for reinstating the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf expired on Monday.
Pakistan's Election Commission has put off a decision on recognising former President Pervez Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League party due to objections over its name and symbol. However, it has registered 14 new political parties.
Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been issued a passport to return to his home country from the UK where he was seeking treatment, a media report said on Monday.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Friday held talks with leaders from various political parties in Pakistan, including Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz's Shahbaz Sharif to whom he presented a 'chaddar' to be placed on the revered shrine of Data Darbar which was attacked by terrorists recently.A delegation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement leaders led by Overseas Pakistan Affairs Minister Farooq Sattar met Krishna on Friday morning.
The Pakistan Muslim League N chief Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday demanded early general elections, saying the country's problems would increase as long as the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government remains in office.
Pakistan's main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has swept the country's last by-polls ahead of next year's general election, winning seven out of eight provincial and national assembly seats that went to the polls in Punjab province.
Our top leaders want to see Sharif as the Prime Minister in case our party does badly in the upcoming general elections," the Dawn quoted the ruling party sources as saying in Islamabad.
The Pakistan People's Party on Tuesday nominated 51-year-old Mirza, a medical graduate, and Faisal Karim Kundi as its candidates for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker respectively of the Lower House of Parliament. The two candidates are expected to win as the Pakistan People's Party and its allies -- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam -- have a majority in the National Assembly.
Leaders of Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League told the media that he had delayed his plans to return to Pakistan later this month after consulting friends and party leaders
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.
Imran Khan on Wednesday promised to cooperate with Nawaz Sharif to tackle key challenges like terrorism despite "serious political differences" with the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz chief who is set to become Pakistan's next prime minister. "We have serious political differences but we decided that we will work together to solve the country's problems, including terrorism," the cricketer-turned-politician said in a video message aired at a news conference.
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal deterred India from carrying out any attacks and made the country's defence impregnable, former premier Nawaz Sharif has claimed.
The author says there was massive rigging in Pakistan polls despite a Musharraf loss
The crisis encircling Pakistan's fragile ruling coalition reached a boiling point on Sunday with the Pakistan People's Party refusing to comply with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's demand on reinstating sacked judges within a deadline and the ally also not enthusiastic about supporting Asif Ali Zardari for presidency.
Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will announce on August 14 the roadmap for the next general elections that are likely to be held in the first week of November, months ahead of schedule.
Asif Ali Zardari was overwhelmingly elected as the 14th President of Pakistan on Saturday, becoming the only civilian President of the coup-prone country for a second time.
Show me the moolah! Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf's party has come out with a rate card for those wanting to join his entourage for his planned homecoming from self-exile -- just USD 2,500 or about Rs 2,50,000.
There is no change in India's Pakistan policy after general elections in the neighbouring country, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Saturday. "There was no change in our policy towards Pakistan," he told mediapersons at the Hindustan Aeronautics complex in Nashik.
Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif has threatened to pull his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party out of the ruling coalition and "sit in the opposition" if judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf are not reinstated by Friday.
Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party's popularity has gone down by a massive 22 per cent among likely voters, according to a survey. The survey, conducted by the International Republican Institute, has shown that the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif group) has witnessed an increase of 3.7 per cent in its popularity.
Smaller parties in Pakistan have launched a bid to patch up differences between President Asif Ali Zardari and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif before matters reach a point of no return.
Pakistan's ruling Pakistan People's Party has begun secret negotiations with Pervez Musharraf's party to isolate its rival Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and to facilitate the former military ruler's possible return to the country, a media report said on Monday.
The Pakistan prime minister will be from Pakistan People's Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz joint secretary Siddique-ul Farooq said on Friday.
Mamnoon Hussain, the Pakistan Muslim League-N candidate expected to win Pakistan's presidential election next week, graduated from a seminary, sources said on Thursday.
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf believes that he os the panacea for Pakistan if it were to be saved from being a failed state, thanks to the 'inept and pathetic performance' by President Asif Ali Zardari led civilian government in Islamabad.Musharraf said that at the time he left office, the poverty rate in Pakistan, according to World Bank figures, had been halved, from 34 percent to 17 percent. "Which government has done this?" he asked.
Asked about the PPP's move to link the restoration of judges with a Constitutional package for judicial reforms, Sharif said the two could not be linked. "We have been discussing both since Wednesday and that (Constitutional package) is a separate issue. The restoration (of the judges) will take place through a resolution," Sharif said after a meeting with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
In a sign of growing rancour between Pakistan's ruling coalition partners, Pakistan People's Party chairman Asif Ali Zardari has lashed out at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shahbaz Sharif for not taking steps to release his friend, who is in a Punjab jail for nine years on charges of drug smuggling. The PML-N president has reportedly turned down the request though his party is in power in Punjab.
Former premier and Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif has created ripples in Pakistan's political and religious circles by saying that the members of the minority Ahmedi sect are his brothers and sisters, and that militants should be flushed out wherever they are active.
The three main political parties in Pakistan on Sunday intensified their efforts for the formation of a coalition government after it became clear that the coup-prone country faced a hung Parliament after general elections marred by allegations of rigging.
Pakistan Muslim League, a key partner in Pakistan's ruling coalition on Tuesday withdrew 17 of its ministers from the federal cabinet, saying the Pakistan People's Party-led government had failed to honour its commitments and to resolve the problems of the people.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who will travel to Islamabad next week to hold talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, will also meet Pakistan Muslim League chief Nawaz Sharif, who is set to form Pakistan's new government.
Pakistan's ruling coalition leaders on Friday held hectic consultations to resolve differences over the restoration of deposed judges, which are threatening to split up the alliance, even as the Pakistan Peoples Party said that it would take steps to resolve the issue through a debate in parliament.Former premier Nawaz Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-N is the second largest party in the ruling coalition, has threatened to pull out of the alliance.
Sharif, 68, was disqualified by the apex court in the Panama Papers case last year under Article 62 of the Constitution for failing to declare a receivable salary as an asset.
Amidst growing divisions in Pakistan's fragile ruling coalition, former premier Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's top leaders are meeting on Monday to decide on pulling out of the alliance led by the Pakistan People's Party.
Former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N said four of its leaders --- Ahsan Iqbal, Sardar Mahtab Abbasi, Rana Tanveer Hussain and Khawaja Saad Rafique -- would rejoin the PPP-led cabinet.
'When it vanishes as a national force (meaning when it can no longer get sufficient votes to hold onto its symbol, the hand) it will not have been the first large Indian party to die,' says Aakar Patel.
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