President General Pervez Musharraf made this revelation while replying to queries about pressure from the US to roll back its nuclear and missile weapons development programme.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has nothing to do with the reinstatement of judges deposed during last year's emergency, the presidential spokesman said on Wednesday. Spokesman Major General (retired) Rashid Qureshi said that a final decision in this regard would have to be taken by Pakistan's ruling coalition government. The President is performing his duties in accordance with the constitution and will continue to do so, Qureshi said.
Musharraf said a mechanism needed to be evolved to resolve the Kashmir issue that can sustain change of regimes in both countries.
He described as unfortunate the defeat of the BJP government in India, as it came after a breakthrough was achieved in Indo-Pak ties during Vajpayee's visit to Pakistan last year.
Pak officials believe even India's `hardliners' saw the pressures on the Pakistani president and understood that he might offer the last and best chance to improve bilateral ties.
The Pakistani president will be in New York to address the UN General Assembly on September 24.
Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni even went to the extent of defending Musharraf in terms of defusing the Kargil crisis
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday dismissed major legal challenges to President Pervez Musharraf's re-election even as the general reportedly made plans to visit Saudi Arabia for talks with its ruler on the possible return of former premier Nawaz Sharif.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which trained a batch of Assam's United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in 1991-92, considered the rebel group's chief Paresh Baruah a prize catch and did not want to offend him even after he was unwilling to take the agency's commands on conducting operations in the northeastern state, claims a new book.
The two leaders will be in NY to attend the UN General Assembly session.
'When he said, "Extremists have gone very extreme," it suddenly occurred to me why his speech pattern seemed so familiar. He was that uncle that you get stranded with at a family gathering when everybody else has gone to sleep but there is still some whisky left in the bottle. And uncle thinks he is about to say something very profound -- if you would only pour him one last one.'
Amid speculation that martial law will be declared if it rules against President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday said it attached "no value to such threats." The apex court said that it will give its judgment on legal challenges to the General's re-election within 12 days. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had on Tuesday rejected the bench's recommendation that all 18 judges of the Supreme Court should decide whether Musharraf is eligible.
'New Delhi feels that given the internal dynamics in Pakistan and the overwhelming powers wielded by the army, one will have to wait for better times to see any meaningful progress in the India-Pakistan relationship,' says Ambassador G Parthasarthy.
In India, the publishers claim to have sold out the first consignment of 8,000 copies that reached on Tuesday.
While there could be moral and political objections, there is no provision in any law, statute or the Constitution, which bars the same assemblies to elect a President for a second term, he said.
The plan hinged on two critical assumptions: India would not be able to replenish supplies quickly to launch a counter-attack. India could not respond in enough strength to dislodge the Pakistanis. Both assumptions would be proved wrong due to the ferocity of the Indian response, reveals former RAW officer Tilak Devasher in his new book, Pakistan At The Helm.
Describing former Pakistan chief of army staff Lt Gen (retired) Shahid Aziz as an imbalanced personality who indulged in uncalled for character assassination, former president and army chief General (retired) Pervez Musharraf justified the 1999 Kargil War and stated that there was absolutely no need to inform everyone about the operation.
'No compromise would be made on peace and writ of the law will be ensured all over the country at all costs,' Dawn News television quoted him as saying during visit to provincial capital Quetta.
Pakistan-India bilateral relations remained frozen for the fourth year over the vexed Kashmir issue but analysts hope the strained ties could be repaired if Nawaz Sharif becomes the prime minister for a record fourth time in the general elections in February in the absence of his main challenger Imran Khan who is in jail in multiple cases.
Chef par excellence Satish Arora recalls his days working as a chef to prime ministers to Chandrima Pal.
Lt Gen Haroon Aslam of the Pakistan Army on Thursday resigned a day after he was superseded by his two juniors who were made the new army chief and the chairman joint chief of staff committee.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Sunday announced that general elections will be held by January 9 and a caretaker government will be in place by November 15 to oversee the process. Musharraf also vowed to take the oath of office for another term as a civilian President, hanging up his military uniform after the Supreme Court gives its verdict on his October 6 Presidential victory.
Ending weeks of speculation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday appointed Lt Gen Raheel Sharif as Pakistan's new army chief and Lt Gen Rashid Mehmood as the chairman joint chiefs of staff committee.
Pakistan military has appointed Lt Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat as the new chief of the Strategic Plans Division, which manages and secures the country's nuclear arsenal.
India should remember that Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations will remain special due, not least, to bonds of all Muslims with The Holy Land. They would also be strategic enough, irrespective of whether the ambassador is a military man or a career civilian appointee., notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
With Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's term coming to an end in November, names of top generals who are likely to succeed him are being discussed in the political circles and in the corridors of power.
'The last thing he would want is new tensions with India.'
'What the long term repercussions of the Ayodhya judgment are will unfold in time.' 'And I hope the consequences are not going to be as damaging to us as they were to Pakistan,' says Aakar Patel.
This will be the fifth time that Prime Minister Sharif will pick the top commander of the country's nearly 550,000 ground troops.
Nawaz Sharif's appointment of a new army chief will influence India-Pakistan relations
The only thing that might justify a response is the desperate state of Pakistan's economy and how its people are suffering. But it's better to be heartless for now, argues Shekhar Gupta.