With Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan virtually losing the majority in the 342-member National Assembly after the defection of two key allies, backdoor efforts are underway to reach a deal between the premier and the joint opposition to dissolve the lower house, according to a highly placed source.
Pakistan's powerful army chief has stepped in to mediate between the embattled government and the protesters seeking resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, bringing the military back into the centre stage and signaling a possible end to the high-political drama.
Bangladeshis are unwilling to give up peace and growing incomes for the chaos witnessed during the BNP-led four-party alliance rule, says Anand Kumar.
Hasina, the president of the Awami League, won the 11th parliamentary elections with a landslide victory even as the Opposition rejected the "farcical" polls marred by violence that claimed 17 lives, making it one of the deadliest polls in the country's history.
A single party will need at least 137 of the directly elected seats to be able to form the government on its own.
Imran Khan on Sunday announced that his party will resume the march to Islamabad from the same spot where he survived an assassination attempt but sustained bullet injuries during a rally in Punjab province, saying he prefers 'death instead of living the life of a slave'.
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.
India will need to watch carefully and understand the new round of instability and uncertainty in Pakistan, while charting the course of its future diplomatic initiatives, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad, he said the Opposition has laid all of their cards, but the no-confidence motion against him would not be successful.
Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia on Monday rejected her arch-rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's proposal for an all-party government to oversee Bangladesh's upcoming election and floated a formula for creating a neutral poll-time regime.
The newly-elected National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, is meeting to elect the prime minister.
Mehbooba said Article 370 was a bridge between the Union and the state.
"'So ja bete nahi to Gabbar Singh aa jayega'. Mothers, who have seen the jungle raj days in Bihar, please do tell your children, especially youth, on the polling day to cast their votes carefully, otherwise they (the RJD) may return to power... those who ran a regime of terror and fear," he told a press conference.
The ruling Awami League-led grand alliance has won 288 seats in the 300-member Parliament, Election Commission secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that his supporters will put up a grand show on Saturday to celebrate completion of one month of anti-government protests seeking ouster of embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Two Taliban suicide bombers struck a historic church in Peshawar Sunday, killing at least 78 people, including women and children, in the deadliest attack on the minority Christian community in Pakistan's history.
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.
The governor accepted the resignation and asked Kumar to continue as the caretaker chief minister till the new National Democratic Alliance government is sworn in.
The state polls are due in October-November.
The earlier attempt by the authorities in Dhaka that Islamist militancy had not established a presence in Bangladesh will now have to be given up.
Extensive firing continues in the area and heavy contingents of elite force have been deployed.
Jobs which are rare in this part of the region are reportedly being given to Pakistani youth and youngsters of Kashmiri origin are being marginalised.
Sharif, 67, had to step down as the chief of the PML-N after he was disqualified as the prime minister by the Supreme Court on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal.
These parties also asked the Centre to present a revised comprehensive economic package that will be a 'true stimulus' and sought reversal of all unilateral policy decisions, especially pertaining to labour laws, as they put forth a 11-point demand charter before the government during a virtual meeting, called by the Congress to discuss the situation arising out of the pandemic as well as the lockdown.
A grieving Pakistan's policy shift towards the Taliban has comes at a great cost, says Shahzad Raza.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has positioned himself as a credible partner for Bangladesh. He has scored by getting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to travel with him to Dhaka, says Srinath Raghavan
"There is a need for stage-wise progress in the process and the first step would be to withdraw all army and paramilitary troops from the state," he said.
He said alleviation of poverty from interior Sindh will be among top priorities of his government.
The 2020 assembly polls marked the coming of age of a politician who valiantly went down fighting an army of battle-hardened veterans.
"The President has proclaimed emergency using his authority as mentioned in the Article 141 of the Constitution," a presidential spokesman said.
In its third summons, issued last week, the NIA promised him security.
Just as the superstars of Indian cricket only play IPL and international fixtures and ignore the Ranji and Mushtaq Ali trophies in domestic cricket, Narendra Modi should play a very limited role in state assembly elections, argues Sudhir Bisht.
The unofficial results were expected by Monday morning which would be announced by the commission headquarters in the capital.
She had a narrow escape when several bombs exploded in a busy commercial area here minutes after her convoy passed through it.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday decided to meet opposition leader Imran Khan in an effort to end the anti-government protests seeking his ouster, as Pakistan's powerful military called for calm and asked all stakeholders to resolve the impasse through meaningful talks.
Two suicide bombers rammed into the All Saints Church in the Kohati Gate area of Peshawar, Pakistan, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was on his way to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly session.
Abbasi will be sworn-in in later at a special ceremony at the President's House.
Fresh clashes erupted on Monday morning between police and hundreds of anti-government protesters who forcibly entered the heavily-guarded Pakistan Secretariat in Islamabad after breaking its gate, hours after the powerful military asked all parties to peacefully resolve the political crisis.
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