Pakistan's Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has said that the Pakistan People's Party-led government was not giving any extension to Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, as he has not asked for the extension of his tenure.
Pakistani terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh made the hoax calls to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani after last year's terror attacks on Mumbai, investigators have told Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.
Pakistan will emerge triumphant in the war against extremism and peace will be restored in the country at any cost, Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said.
The report regarding Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani extending the tenure of Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha by a year clearly suggests that nothing much has changed in the country and the two still rule the roost, says an article in the New York Times.While experts believe that Kayani's move may also pave the way for his own extension in service, the 'weak' civilian set-up in Pakistan has no other choice.
Soon after Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee made obituary references to former members Baldev Singh Jasrotia and Ashfaq Hussain, Bharatiya Janata Party members were on their feet demanding resignation of Antulay and criticising the government for not making a statement on the issue. BJP members continued sloganeering over the Antulay issue, while Left members led by Basudeb Acharia were on their feet demanding withdrawal of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill.
America's top military official arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday for consultations with Pakistan's civil and military leadership in the wake of tension with India following the terror attacks in Mumbai.
There are two constituencies in the district, including Kangan and the prestigious Ganderbal constituency from where National Conference president Omar Abdullah is pitched against eleven other candidates, including Qazi Mohammad Afzal of the People's Democratic Party and Sheikh Mohammad Ashfaq of the Congress.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is on shaky grounds, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is pro-America and Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani is doing well in taking military action against terrorists in his country, a top Republican Senator said on Monday.
In an apparent reference to India, Pakistan today said it was concerned over the "massive arms acquisitions" in the region and that it is committed to defend itself against all external and internal threats.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday made an unannounced visit to the restive Swat valley where troops are engaged in flushing out Taliban militants.A top-level review of the security situation and the repatriation of the displaced people, uprooted by insurgency, was the highlight of the visit. The visit also assumes significance with reports of the army being on the verge of wrapping up the intensive operation.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of a major crackdown on lawyers and opposition party activists ahead of a nationwide protest.
The CCB police, which is investigating charges of spot-fixing in the last two seasons of KPL, has so far arrested eight people, including four cricketers, the owner of the Belagavi Panthers' team and an international bookie.
A change in Pakistan, however, is inevitable in the weeks ahead. The big question will be whether such a change will make Pakistan a more stable country or push it further towards a failed state.
The 26/11 trial is expected to take an interesting turn with the counsel for Fahim Ansari contemplating the inclusion of Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani's name as the main conspirator.
Diplomatic and other sources say the two organisations believe they can play a role because they are intrinsically linked to policy-making in Pakistan.
The top United States commander in Afghanistan has said that they are facing difficulties in their latest military campaign against the Taliban due to lack of cooperation from Pakistan.General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and US Forces in Afghanistan, is believed to have pursued this line in his secret visit to Islamabad over the weekend, during which he met President Asif Ali Zardari and Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
In an interview to CBS Face the Nation, Chairman of America's Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said Pakistan Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is focused on both -- the threat from India and that from internal insurgency.
Insiders say that General Kayani's decision to extend Pasha's service has been made to ensure the continuity of the army's offensive against extremists in the troubled tribal regions of the country.
With international pressure mounting on Pakistan to cooperate in bringing the Mumbai attack perpetrators to justice, President Asif Ali Zardari and powerful army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani today discussed the security situation across the country and tensions with India.There was no official word on the meeting, though Dawn News channel said
Pakistan's armed forces will mount an equal response "within minutes" if India carries out any surgical strike inside the country, army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has reportedly assured the nation's leadership.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who just couldn't stop praising Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , told Congress Thursday that Kayani has purged the so-called 'rogue' elements from the ISI who are in cahoots with the Taliban.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Saturday night to discuss the fallout of the coordinated terrorist strikes in Mumbai amid India's accusations about possible Pakistani links to the attacks. This was the second meeting on Satruday of the three top leaders
Moderate to brisk voting was recorded in the two constituencies of Ganderbal and Kangan in north Kashmir Sunday as authorities again clamped undeclared curfew in the rest of the Valley to prevent the proposed separatist march in Srinagar.
'With the extension issue settled clearly in his favour, Gen Bajwa would be free to fashion a more hardline policy against India. 'We could, therefore, expect a raising of the ante in Kashmir,' says Rana Banerji.
The international community, including India, must offer the Pakistan government all the help and encouragement that it needs to fight and root out the menace of radical extremism, or else the terrorists will spread their tentacles far and wide -- including, eventually, into India.
Lt Gen Zubair Hayat appointed as Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff Committee.
Sharif, who has urged the masses to defy a government clampdown and join a nationwide protest, said the "chances of army takeover is absolutely nil".
Highest levels of Pakistan's security apparatus, including army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, might have been aware of the plot to bomb the Indian embassy in Kabul in July, United States intelligence and security officials believe, a media report has said.They also believe that the attack was aided by Pakistan's infamous Inter Services Intelligence agency."It's very difficult to imagine he (General Kayani) was not aware," a senior American official said.
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.
Pakistan's report on its probe into the dossier provided by India into the Mumbai terror attacks was on Monday examined in Islamabad, by a top level cabinet committee, headed by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, before being handed over to New Delhi.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is locked in a power struggle with the army over his plans to ease tensions with India and his assertion that Taliban, not India, is the greatest threat to his country, a news report said today.
In a bid to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan, United States on Monday rushed its top Army official to Islamabad, to hold discussions with the country's political leadership. US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen arrived in Islamabad today on an unscheduled visit, second after the November 26 terror strikes in Mumbai that killed more than 180 people. Mullen met Pakistani national security advisor Mehmood Ali Durrani shortly after his arrival.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and superstar Shah Rukh Khan have been ranked among the 50 most powerful people in the world by prestigious United States-based magazine 'Newsweek' magazine, in a list topped by President-elect Barack Obama.Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who controls the country's nuclear weapons, is placed 20th on the list of the global 'power elite', at the beginning of 2009 in the magazine's January issue.
A high-level meeting chaired by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad took stock of the deteriorating security situation in the restive Northwestern Frontier Province and authorised Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani to lead a military effort in this regard.
In the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Pakistan Army chief has informed the country's leadership that if tensions with India mount further, the military will have to move troops from its restive tribal areas to the eastern borders, ending the war against local militants.
Pakistan on Saturday did an about turn on sending the Inter-Services Intelligence chief to India, in connection with the probe into the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying a representative of the spy agency would be sent instead of him.The decision was made at a late night meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of the powerful army. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also joined the meeting.
The United States has ruled out a military coup in Pakistan in the wake of the political chaos saying Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani is a staunch supporter of democracy and doesn't want to take over like his predecessor Pervez Musharraf did in 1999.
Amid intense US pressure to deliver on the war on terror, the chief of Pakistan's powerful Inter Services Intelligence has been shunted out of Islamabad and replaced by Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, considered close to the reform-minded Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting -- including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment -- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks, New York Times said the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.
The people of Pakistan are in a dark, foreboding mood.According to an International Republican Institute opinion poll, as many as 86 percent of Pakistanis believe their country is headed in the wrong direction.
