Shouting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf, dozens of volunteers of the Pakistan Muslim League in the US has asked the UN to pressurise the "military dictator" to step aside and restore democracy in the country.
In another strong indication how difficult it would be for the former military ruler to cling on to power, the poll found that the two main opposition parties -- the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) -- had a combined backing of an overwhelming 72 per cent.
Warning that any move to impeach him could 'destabilise the country', 64-year-old Musharraf, who abruptly cancelled his visit to China to attend the Olympic Games opening, told leaders of his ally Pakistan Muslim League-Q that he would continue to play his constitutional role as the head of State.
Former military dictator Pervez Musharraf on Sunday ended nearly four years in self-exile defying threats of arrest and assassination by Taliban, saying that he returned home to "save" Pakistan and would face all "challenges" that lay ahead.
Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf has deferred his plans to return home from self-exile after repeated threats by the country's leadership that the former general would be arrested upon arrival, an official of his party said on Friday.
Shahzain Bugti, leader of the Balauch Jamhoori Watan party, has charged the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government at the centre of "inaction" in not registering cases against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for allegedly murdering his grandfather Nawab Akbar Bugti.
Amid main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's demand that Pervez Musharraf be tried for treason, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said the fate of the former military ruler will be decided by the people and Parliament and ruled out using his powers on "frivolous issues of the past".
"Musharraf has become highly controversial and elections would not be free and fair under him," Sharif told a news conference after chairing a meeting of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party to chalk out its strategy for the February 18 parliamentary polls.
The 69-year-old former military ruler's farmhouse was declared a sub-jail hours after an anti-terrorism court on Saturday remanded Musharraf to judicial custody for a fortnight.
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.
Posters of General Musharraf will be put up in cities, towns and villages across the country. PML leaders will also organise seminars and public meetings to convince the public to vote for the president.
The United States has advised former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to adopt a lenient view on the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf and let him determine his own future.The US advice came as Assistant Secretary of state Richard Boucher met Sharif at the Raiwind farm house near Lahore on Tuesday.He said the US should let Pakistan settle its issues by itself. He added if the US could not facilitate Pakistan, it should not interfere in its internal affairs.
Pakistan's former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf is hospitalised in the United Arab Emirates after his health deteriorated and is going through a 'difficult stage where recovery is not possible', his family said on Friday amidst speculation about his condition.
Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf was on Tuesday indicted by an anti-terrorism court in the 2007 assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N chief said his party will not accept any national unity government headed by Musharraf.
Musharraf, who appeared defiant in the face of criticism over the crisis and violence in Karachi, asked coalition members in unequivocal terms to prepare for the next general election without bothering about the current situation.
Quoting a senior PML-Q official, the report said, "He's been sulking...He's retreated into a mental bunker, which is not healthy. He thinks everyone is out to get him and only listens to a small circle. It's a dangerous mindset to be in at this point in time. He could decide to hit back."
Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gillani on Wednesday said that the fate of President Pervez Musharraf would be decided according to the Constitution while the judges deposed by him will be reinstated in the true spirit of an agreement reached between the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in this regard.Gillani, who belongs to the PPP, called on Sharif and his brother Shahbaz at their Raiwind estate in Lahore after addressing a business meet.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday filed his nomination papers for the October 6 presidential polls, formally launching his bid for another five-year term in the face of legal challenges and stiff protests by the opposition parties.
As Musharraf finalised his plans for re-election, a senior minister said the general will be deemed to have been elected unopposed for another term if the opposition parties did not put up any candidate against him
Last year, Musharraf declared Ifikhar Muhammad Chaudhry a non-functional chief justice of Pakistan. This year, he is becoming the first non-functional President of the country. Some close friends have already advised Musharraf to step down quietly, but the General is still confident that his hand picked army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kyani will rescue him soon.
Several retired and serving military officers attend Pervez Musharraf's funeral prayers.
The All Pakistan Muslim League has served a legal notice of $5 million to a British newspaper over allegations it levelled against the political party and its head, former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
The PPP and PML-N, in a charter signed two years ago, had committed to setting up a commission to review the Kargil conflict. Musharraf claimed that Sharif, the then prime minister, was aware of the Pakistan army's advances into Kargil. Sharif has denied the charge, and is seeking a probe to fix responsibility for the war.
A Pakistani court on Thursday ordered authorities to remove the name of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf from the exit control list, paving the way for him to leave the country.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League will field a person from each province as covering candidate for Gen Musharraf in the presidential poll, he said.
Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani "gave his word" on Sunday to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz that his government will not extend any help to former president Pervez Musharraf to defend himself in any court of law as they agreed to bridge the "trust deficit" between the parties.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N on Wednesday said that it would finalise its response, to a constitutional reforms package drawn up by its ally Pakistan People's Party to clip the sweeping powers of President Pervez Musharraf, by Thursday.A committee formed by Sharif to examine the package met for the second time in the day and its chairman Raja Zafrul Haq said the panel had completed reviewing two-thirds of the contents of the package.
Clearly, her father hopes that a successful tenure in Lahore will give Maryam the ballast to be prime minister after the next general election.
'Escalation of violence in the tribal areas and Musharraf's increased physical vulnerability to another terrorist attack would be the inevitable outcome of the operation.'
Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Sunday said that he is not scared and announced that he will return home later this month to launch his political career despite facing threats of arrest in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.
Learning perhaps from the Kargil debacle, Musharraf tried hard to evolve as a statesman in his dealings with India, recalls Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
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.
The 74-year-old retired general had last month said that he was the biggest supporter of the LeT and its founder Hafiz Saeed
Leaders of the All Parties Democratic Movement termed the amendment 'a clear violation of the Constitution.'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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