The newly-elected National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, is meeting to elect the prime minister.
However, the APC failed to make any headway in his proposed formation of working groups as some political parties opposed the move.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has snapped informal talks with the ruling Pakistan People's Party, following its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari's stinging comments describing him as a 'relic of the past and an unelected and non-democratic President', Pakistani TV news channels reported on Friday. During his interview with PTI, Zardari described Musharraf as a relic of the past, who was standing between the people of Pakistan and democracy.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
Karachi and Sindh are not Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf territory; traditionally, the city and the province where it is located are Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement strongholds, which makes the turnout at Imran's rally interesting.
His comments come against the backdrop of a campaign by Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, which has claimed that applying for CAA would turn legal citizens into foreigners.
The Pakistan People's Party-led government will install a caretaker government in March next year to oversee the next general election, which will be held by May 18, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has said.
'Every Indian knows why the BJP is targeting Hamid Ansari.'
Pakistan's Supreme Court has struck down President Asif Ali Zardari's order appointing two top judges, stoking fears of a fresh showdown between the government and judiciary with the ruling Pakistan People's Party blaming the fiercely independent Chief Justice for the crisis. Going against the recommendations of the country's top judge Iftikhar Chaudhry, the President on Saturday appointed Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif as a judge of the apex court.
Crucial reforms in Muslim personal law, especially laws related to inheritance and adoption, need to be initiated forthwith; historically speaking, without the State's backing, hardly has any reform taken place or allowed to prevail, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
At a luncheon hosted by PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for newly elected Parliamentarians, leaders of the three parties said they would support each other to form the federal government and to change the establishment to ensure that the military no longer had a role in Pakistan's politics.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
The BJP's top leadership will drop its MPs found to be facing anti-incumbency, according to its internal surveys -- a pivotal tactic to ensure the party achieves its target of winning 370 seats.
India and Pakistan should cooperate in fighting the common threat of terrorism instead of engaging in any sort of blame game over the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan Information Minister Sherry Rehman has said. Rehman claimed India's leadership had made contradictory statements on the involvement of Pakistani agencies in the Mumbai attacks.
The ruling Pakistan People's Party has decided to hold the general election and the polls to the Senate ahead of schedule against the backdrop of rampant speculation that the government may not be able to complete its tenure, according to media reports on Friday.
Former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N said four of its leaders --- Ahsan Iqbal, Sardar Mahtab Abbasi, Rana Tanveer Hussain and Khawaja Saad Rafique -- would rejoin the PPP-led cabinet.
Replying to the no-confidence motion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Thursday that the opposition's move is auspicious for his government as he expressed confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies will break old records to retain power at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Pakistan cricket squad was allowed to leave their managed isolation facility in Christchurch after getting clearance from New Zealand's Health Ministry on Tuesday.
On his joining politics, he had said, "We will see, I don't know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies." "I can either enter politics, or I can enter another career that would benefit the people," Bilawal said when he was 15.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 19 the pleas seeking a direction to the Centre to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 till the apex court has decided the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Amidst growing divisions in Pakistan's fragile ruling coalition, former premier Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's top leaders are meeting on Monday to decide on pulling out of the alliance led by the Pakistan People's Party.
The prime minister needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition's bid to topple him.
Pakistan is making efforts at multiple levels for the Taliban government to have a soft landing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan People's Party parliamentarians on Wednesday backed party chief Asif Ali Zardari for the post of President but he said a decision would be made only after consulting all members of the ruling coalition.
Congress sitting MLA Saleh Mohammad, is hoping to buck the trend of anti-incumbency in the seat, and believes people will vote for his development work and not along religious lines.
Lambasting the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly bringing up the issues of NRC, CAA and Uniform Civil Code ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted she would not allow anyone to take away the citizenship of people during her lifetime.
'It is not just the religious minorities who are being intimidated or targeted.' 'You see an equal intimidation or effort of intimidation towards anyone who does not agree with the Hindutva interpretation of the Hindu faith.'
The eight states of the north-east account for 25 Lok Sabha seats and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is eying to bag those in the Parliamentary election.
The party's Jammu and Kashmir unit has taken note of the video of former MLC Randhawa and served him a show cause notice on Monday, asking him to explain his position within 48 hours and submit a public apology.
The parliament unanimously adopted a resolution asking the government to declare teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, the target of a recent assassination attempt by the Taliban, as the "Daughter of Pakistan".
Bhutto's return after the Presidential election, expected to take place before October 15, adds to the political turmoil in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Peoples Party chief, who is in self-imposed exile, kept her hopes alive on reaching an agreement with Musharraf despite breakdown in talks, saying the "window is not totally shut."
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.
According to the sources in the ruling Pakistan People's Party, Gilani is quite perturbed over the prevailing situation wherein his whole political career is at stake due to the prevailing political and constitutional mess.
Three new victors -- the Pakistan People's Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Awami National Party have shown their majority many days ago, but President Pervez Musharraf is playing delaying games and using secret agencies to break the majority party PPP from the PML faction of Nawaz Sharif.
Buoyed by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party's strong performance in elections to the upper house of parliament, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Saturday dismissed speculations about an early general election and the installation of a caretaker regime. "Now there will be no caretaker or chair-taker. The prime minister will not go up, inside or outside. He will stay right here," Gilani said.
What has peeved the administration most is the civilian government's lack of control of its border areas and failed peace deals with extremist elements. These failed efforts by Islamabad have led to exponential growth of these jihadis. The mounting evidence of the collusion of Pakistani intelligence with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, in launching attacks against American forces in Afghanistan, is worrying the Bush administration.
He also accused her of nepotism by choosing to play the limited role of "bua" (aunt) to her "bhatija" (nephew) instead of becoming "Didi" (elder sister) to the people.
Pakistan's mighty military establishment and a defiant judiciary seems to have joined hands to give a tough time to a fragile Pakistan People's Party government at a critical time -- just before the election of the new prime minister following the disqualification of Yousaf Raza Gilani by the supreme court on contempt charges. Amir Mir reports.
