The three most powerful elements of Pakistani politics, President Asif Ali Zardari, opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and the Army are "coming together" to fight the "common enemy" of terrorism, the top United States envoy to the Pak-Afghan region has said.
The stage is set for talks between Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League - N chief Nawaz Sharif on a draft parliamentary resolution for reinstating judges, sacked last year by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, with the arrival of the Pakistan People's Party co-chairman in London on Thursday. Besides the question of judges' restoration, the two leaders will also review national and political developments.
The Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying the PML-N leader touched down at Islamabad airport at 0900 hours IST.
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Monday filed nomination papers from two more parliamentary constituencies in her hometown for the January 8 general election. The PPP chairperson, who had filed nomination papers for a seat reserved for women in Karachi on Sunday, submitted her papers from two seats in the southern Sindh town of Larkana, a stronghold of the PPP. The PPP has announced its final list of candidates but Bhutto has left the option of a boycott open.
Benazir said an interim government must be set up by taking all parties into confidence. The former prime minister said the government had discussed setting up an interim political arrangement with her, but the issue of the caretaker prime minister was yet to be discussed, the Daily Times reported.
"International law doesn't recognise India's unilateral and illegal actions of 5 August 2019. The judicial endorsement by the Indian Supreme Court has no legal value. Kashmiris have an inalienable right to self determination in accordance with the relevant UN SC resolutions," Pakistan's caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said in a post on X.
Pakistani media on Monday termed the first meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif as a "minor miracle" and noted that the dialogue held amidst a tense atmosphere yielded "words" but "no action".
Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif does not rule out the possibility of forming a national government, including representatives of rival PPP, even if his party wins the coming elections.
Pakistan's ruling party PML-N has swept the PoK's legislative assembly elections, bagging 30 of 41 directly elected seats, with a two-thirds majority to form the new government.
Pakistan's opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on Thursday told the Hindus not to think of migrating, saying they were safe in the country, days after three Hindu doctors were killed on broad daylight in Sindh province.
'Imran Khan's rule was dismal. Despite this, he has become a cult figure.' 'He sold the dream of a Naya Pakistan to the people of Pakistan, especially the youth, and branded all other politicians as corrupt.' 'Hence, his popularity.'
"If Nawaz Sharif does accept the invitation, let's hope Narendra Modi will serve him chicken biryani!" Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said in an apparent jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime minister-designate.
If the only superpower, which calls India an ally, sees the region through an India-Pakistan prism, it is unacceptable. Rather than endorse India's sphere of influence, this undermines it, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday invited India to engage in a "comprehensive, sustained and result-oriented" dialogue with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue.
Tariq Fatemi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, said President Pervez Musharraf's failure to rout terrorism in Pakistan was largely because he did not have popular support, as the war on terror was seen by the people as 'America's war.'
The Kashmir issue was raised by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his first meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, a top Pakistani advisor said on Wednesday, discounting reports that the issue was sidelined during the talks.
Former BJP president makes the claim at function to release Marathi translation of MJ Akbar's book
Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N has emerged the single largest party in Pakistan's landmark general elections by bagging 122 of the 272 parliamentary seats that went to the polls on May 11, the election commission announced Tuesday.
Ending the suspense on government formation in Pakistan, the two main opposition parties on Thursday announced they would form a new ruling coalition, but did not name any prime ministerial candidate.
Bhutto had earlier said that her party would contest the polls 'under protest', while Sharif has backed the All Parties Democratic Movement's decision to boycott the polls.
Sharif said Kashmiris were fighting for their right of self-determination and Pakistan would continue to support them.
The deal between President Asif Ali Zardari and Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif does not herald a solution to the instability of the nuclear-armed Pakistan nor does it ensure the Obama administration's primary objective of tamping down the Taliban insurgency, a media report said today.
Sharif, who had on Monday joined hands with his political rival and Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto to set conditions for free and fair polls, addressed supporters of his PML-N party at several places in the North West Frontier Province on Tuesday.
Fresh controversy erupted after Pakistan's powerful Army Chief met Premier Nawaz Sharif on Monday to discuss ways to resolve the deepening political crisis with media reports claiming that the embattled prime minister was advised to step down during the meeting.
The deposed premier, who was ousted in a military coup in 1999, said that after returning to the country on September 10, he would lead his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the campaign
In a U-turn, former Premier Nawaz Sharif, who last week indicated that the lone captured Mumbai attacker Ajmal Amir Iman was a Pakistani, has said India should provide evidence for Islamabad to take action or else it should avoid creating tensions through 'fake allegations'.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday embarked on a visit to the United States to chart a course for "future cooperation" by expanding and deepening bilateral relations in a host of areas, including trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism.
"I was never in favour of a war with India," Sharif, deposed by Musharraf, his handpicked army chief, said in an interview in London to India Today group editor Prabhu Chawla.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari finally gave in to the demands of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz late on Sunday night and decided to reinstate Chief Justice ftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.Reacting to Zardari's decision, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has called off the proposed long march to Islamabad, which had threatened to plunge Pakistan into another political crisis.
The SC also ordered the National Accountability Court to start a corruption case against Sharif, his sons -- Hussain and Hassan -- and daughter Maryam.
Bhutto said the staging of peaceful demonstrations against the suspension of the chief justice was their democratic right and that the arrest of leaders and workers was condemnable.
Three government officials have been suspended in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for quoting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as having said that Kashmir was a flashpoint that could trigger a fourth war with India, a media report said on Saturday.
The United States on Tuesday applauded the first bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, adding it welcomes any steps by the two South Asian neighbours to strengthen and deepen their dialogue and cooperation.
Some elements in an intelligence agency were using their links in the PPP and the media to establish that Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan is trying to become a candidate for the position of either the prime minister or the president through the PML-N. But their efforts to create a rift between the two opposition parties, which are planning to form a coalition government, failed.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N chief said his party will not accept any national unity government headed by Musharraf.
Imran called on Modi not to talk about stopping water and surgical strikes, saying Pakistan is united and standing behind its army against any aggression.
Pakistan's ruling PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is expected to meet his rival, Pakistan Muslim League-N president and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz, in London to discuss modalities for the latter's return to the country ahead of the general election. Hussain is currently in London for a medical check-up but sources in his Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid party said he had been tasked with finalising the details for Shahbaz's return to Pakistan.
An overwhelming majority of Pakistanis believe their country is moving in the wrong direction and 59 per cent would rather have Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif as president instead of Asif Ali Zardari, a survey has said. Eighty-eight per cent of the respondents in the poll conducted by United States-based International Republican Institute said Pakistan is moving in the wrong direction, while 73 per cent said the economic situation had worsened in the past year.
The government claims the deal bars the deposed prime minister from entering the country before the completion of a ten-year exile.
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