Khan was imprisoned by the government last week under terrorism charges after trying to lead a student protest in Lahore.
Television presenter Karan Thapar looks back at his Cambridge days and talks about the late Benazir Bhutto, his contemporary, selling tickets for a Pandit Ravishankar concert and what it takes to be an alumnus of the world's best university. Read on.
The kidnapping of United Nations High Commision for Refugees official John Solecki and setting up of UN inquiry commission to probe former Pakistan premier Benazir's Bhutto assassination were among the issues that the world body chief .
Addressing a rally of hundreds of his supporters at Sheikhupura in Punjab province, Sharif said Zardari had used "hand-picked judges" appointed by former President Pervez Musharraf to deliver the verdict barring him and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, from contesting polls and holding public office.
Pakistan's powerful spy agency ISI continues to have close links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and has used the terror group's services to foment anti-India passion in Kashmir and elsewhere, a UN report has said.
Politicians may not understand things in great detail, but they surely understand that creating fear in the minds of people to garner votes, works. Rahul Gandhi is the latest politician who has tried to use this strategy, just that in his case, it did not work, says Shonalee Biswas.
Pakistan Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, the alleged mastermind in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto died on Tuesday after protracted illness, a media report has said.
A total of 127 people were killed when a Boeing 737-200 of Bhoja Air crashed a short distance from the international airport in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi, the second such accident in less than two years.
The Foreign Department in Melbourne warned the Australian cricketers of the "high risk of terrorist activity" in India.
The Bush administration may fail to save its most trusted friend because the PPP and PML-N are determined to form a coalition and clip all those powers through which a president can dissolve parliament.
Taliban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, accused by the Pakistan government of being involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, is set to dispatch a delegation to meet Pakistan People's Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari to condole the death of the former premier, a news report has said. "The delegation, comprising prominent tribal elders and religious scholars from South Waziristan, will deliver a written condolence letter from Mehsud to Asif Zardari," it said.
'The resolve has to be there, the will has to be there. Above all, our top leadership has to adopt a statesman-like approach' says Pakistan's Interior Minister Faisal Hayat.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf returned to Islamabad on Tuesday from a four-nation visit to Europe during which he attempted to shore up support for his controversial regime.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has ruled out any possibility of rigging in the upcoming general elections and said his government has made "fool-proof" arrangements to put Pakistan on the path to "true democracy".
Asking the Pakistan government to create a level-playing field for a credible and transparent elections next month, Britain has said Islamabad should use the period to "build confidence in the democratic process".
Asserting that there was no option but to postpone Pakistan's general election due to the law and order situation created by former premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination, President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday said that the army would be deployed across the country to ensure fair and peaceful polls. "I had always wanted the polls to be held as per schedule on January 8. But the new date is absolutely reasonable," he said in an address to the nation.
Pakistan is confident Australia's cricket tour in March and April can go ahead despite security fears, officials said on Tuesday.
An emergency meeting of the poll panel chaired on Monday by Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq sought reports from poll officials in the four provinces about the impact of the protests on election arrangements.
According to the Constitution, a person has be at least 25 years old to become a member of the Parliament. Thus, Bilawal is ineligible to be the chairperson of the PPP. Under the law, he cannot hold any party position till he turns 25.
Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express, which was suspended due to security reasons in the wake of the assassination of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto, resumed its service on Sunday. The decision was taken after consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and railway officials of Pakistan, another official said. No decision has been taken on the resumption of services of the Thar Express.
It was being speculated that the polls could be postponed following the assassination of Pakistan People's Party chief and former premier Benazir Bhutto on Thursday.
Adrian Levy , co-author of the recently-published Deception- Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy, told rediff.com in an exclusive interview that an honest investigation into the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto may reveal the hand of the country's military behind it.
A committee formed by former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and her political rival Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party has completed 80 per cent of its work on drawing up the charter of demands, which is expected to be completed on Thursday.
Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir on issues like Musharraf's compulsions in resorting to this extreme measure, conducting elections and restoring democracy in Pakistan, whether its nuclear weapons are in danger of falling into extremists' hands and what the ramifications for India would be.
This may be a true elections where people really decide on who will represent them rather than an exercise to legitimise an unrepresentative system
The US has said the Bush administration's continuing support for the military ruler for short-term benefits will only make a bad problem worse
Pervez Musharraf's re-election as president looks fanciful. Nawaz Sharif senses it is time to strike.
Describing as a "white lie" claims made in a new book that he had secretly backed the Taliban while participating in the US-led war on terror, former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday that it was a conspiracy aimed at weakening Pakistan and the army.
"Pakistan is a peace-loving country. We don't want to have war or aggression," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said, addressing a function on the occasion of the first death anniversary of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. "We want to have friendly relations with our neighbours -- Afghanistan and India," Gilani said.
After his failed misadventure in Kargil, Musharraf deposed the then Prime Minister Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 in various positions.
'Pakistan has received assurances that no dispensation in Afghanistan will be inimical to Pakistani interests and that Pakistan will have a say in the determination of the future of the region. India would definitely not be part of the new order if the US could help it.'
The Pune terror attack was only to be expected once the government announced its decision to resume official-level talks with Pakistan. That the Islamic jihadi and extremist elements in South Asia, as a whole, are opposed to any reconciliation between India and Pakistan is by now well established. The attempts on the life of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto were part of the same agenda.
Pakistan's ruling Pakistan People's Party chief Asif Ali Zardari appears set to sweep Saturday's presidential poll and would be expected to tackle problems like rising militancy and economic malaise after his election.Sources said that Zardari expects to poll over 60 per cent of the 700 members in the electoral college, in an election necessitated by former President Pervez Musharraf's resignation on August 18.
Pakistan's former president Asif Ali Zardari was on Tuesday acquitted in a corruption case dating back to the 1990s when his slain wife Benazir Bhutto was prime minister.
Paksitan's People's Party nominee Fehmida Mirza, a loyalist of slain former Premier Benazir Bhutto, was on Wednesday elected the first woman Speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. 51-year-old Mirza, who has been thrice elected to Parliament, won 249 of the 324 votes cast by the newly-elected members of the National Assembly.
Suspense over Pakistan's next prime minister continued with the Pakistan People's Party, which will head a planned coalition government, on Thursday delaying a decision on its nominee amid differences over the frontrunner Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
Pakistan's main opposition parties Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan People's Party on Tuesday jointly mustered a simple majority in the new Parliament, local TVchannels said.
A total of 1,442 terrorist attacks, incidents of political violence and border clashes that occurred in 2007 left 3,448 people dead and 5,353 injured.
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