In a touching and inspiring speech Aitzaz Ahsan asked how America can talk about democracy in Pakistan but not raise its voice against the illegal decision of President Pervez Musharraf to sack Pakistan's chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry
Zubaida Jalal, a former minister in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's cabinet, was defeated in Monday's parliamentary polls, television channels reported.
Making the announcement, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Parliament that the Interior Ministry will be asked to 'move a summary to President Pervez Musharraf to commute the sentence of those on death row to life imprisonment'. Under Pakistan Constitution, the President has powers to commute sentences.
Pakistan Peoples Party chief Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif on Friday failed to break the deadlock over modalities for impeaching Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and reinstating deposed judges.
Journalists all over the country marched with black flags to protest against the tear-gas and baton charge on media persons covering the protests before the Election Commission on Saturday during the scrutiny of nominations for presidential poll.
Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack during an election campaign rally on December 27, 2007 outside the Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.
Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said President Pervez Musharraf must be held accountable for all his actions as thousands of protestors gathered near Parliament in Islamabad to demand the restoration of judges sacked by the embattled ex-military ruler.
Ratcheting up pressure on the Pakistan government, thousands of lawyers demanding reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf during last year's emergency, led a protest to a heavily fortified Islamabad on Friday where authorities sounded a high alert amid fears of violence.The protesters, who have accused the new government of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of wavering on its election promise of restoring the judiciary, have threatened to continue.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday asked President Pervez Musharraf to address a joint sitting of the parliament as it is mandatory for him to do so under the constitution.
Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has reportedly decided to move an impeachment motion against President Pervez Musharraf immediately on his return from Saudi Arabia, a move that will force the President to quit rather than be thrown out.Local daily, The News, quoted sources as saying that the decision was conveyed by Zardari to all relevant foreign players, including the Saudis. Zardari had issued instructions to party leaders to start work.
The United States has refused to confirm or deny reports claiming Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has rebuffed top intelligence officials of the Bush administration, on proposed American operations inside Pakistan, including joint operations.
Much is being made of Kayani's attempt to surround himself with his own men. That is only partially true and in many ways legitimate too. However, it does not seem that he would have unnecessarily pushed Lt-Gen Taj out of the ISI in less than a year of the latter's having taken charge of the agency if internal and external actors had not begun to cast doubts over the agency's internal and external conduct
Amid Western concern over deteriorating security situation and Pakistan's ability to hold free and fair polls, President Pervez Musharraf arrived in London on a three-day visit during which he will meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown among others.
Pressing for Musharraf's ouster, Mohammad Hasham Babar, the secretary general of the party which is a part of the Pakistan People's Party-led ruling coalition, said the president has destroyed almost all the institutions in the country, including the judiciary, during his dictatorship. He has to go out. We do not want him. Whether he goes out of the country or he is prosecuted in the country, there are only two options," Babar told PTI in Delhi.
Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan has turned against embattled President Pervez Musharraf, who pardoned him for proliferation activities four years ago, blaming him for the various problems confronting the country that had 'gone to the dogs'. Khan, confined to his home in Islamabad for the past four years by Musharraf after he admitted to proliferating nuclear secrets, claimed he had never done anything illegal.
Pakistan allowed the US to conduct limited operations in its territory against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants during the reign of former president Pervez Musharraf, ex-foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has said. "Pakistan had allowed the US to conduct limited operations," Kasuri, a close confidant of Musharraf, told Geo News channel in an interview.
Musharraf was serious about sharing power with Bhutto but her demands exposed her real intentions; she actually overestimated her importance and tried to grab everything from Musharraf through negotiations
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.'
In a new revelation, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the CIA of the United States and his country's ISI together created the Taliban.
Naveed Musharraf, the president's brother, and Irum Bilal Musharraf, his daughter-in-law, have reportedly given donations to Obama instead of Bush's Republican Party's presumptive candidate Senator John McCain.
The meeting of the PPP's central executive committee came a day after the presidency and party snapped all contacts between them in the wake of Zardari's comments in an interview with PTI describing Musharraf as a relic of the past who is standing between the people of Pakistan and democracy. The party's federal ministers and the chief ministers of the PPP-led governments in Balochistan and Sindh provinces also attended the meeting held at Zardari House in Islamabad.
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.
President Pervez Musharraf has welcomed resumption of the composite dialogue process between India and Pakistan, hoping it would lead to "some fruitful and substantial" conclusion. Musharraf, who has supervised several rounds of talks with India, was given a presentation by the foreign ministry during a meeting attended by Foreign Minister Qureshi, Foreign Secretary Bashir and other senior officials, on the eve of the two-day talks to be held.
The Scotland Yard team, probing the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is facing difficulties and demanded the slain leader's post-mortem.
Being a son of Nehru's dentist is not the only connection that Alvi has with India. He is yet another president whose family migrated to Pakistan from India after partition. His predecessors Mamnoon Hussain's family came from Agra and Pervez Musharraf's parents migrated from New Delhi.
The Swiss government has officially informed Pakistan that it cannot revive cases of alleged money laundering against President Asif Ali Zardari as the matter is time-barred, Law Minister Zahid Hamid has said.
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.
Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said that President Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, former federal ministers Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Ejaz-ul-Haq, Amir Muqam and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi faced threats to their lives from extremists.
"There is no possibility of extremists coming into the government in Pakistan and therefore taking over the (nuclear) assets...through the political or the democratic system," he said.
The crucial talks between the top leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition ended inconclusively on Friday, with Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari seeking more time from his ally Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif, to consider the modalities for reinstatement of the deposed judges. Sharif said that his party remained committed to the restoration of the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf, by May 12. Zardari did not talk to the media.
Malik also claimed that R&AW had 'failed to understand the importance of the intercepted telephonic conversations between Musharraf and his army officers,' according to a release issued by the Observer Research Foundation, which brought out the book The Military Factor in Pakistan by Lt Col R S N Singh. Malik, who heads the Foundation, narrated how the Kargil infiltration by the Pakistani Army happened soon after the 'much-hyped' Lahore Declaration between Vajpayee & Sharif.
In a move that could benefit Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney on Thursday asked President Pervez Musharraf to convert all death sentences in the country to life imprisonment. "This is an issue on which we have spoken several times during our meetings and an issue on which I have already sent several appeals," the former human rights minister said.
Pakistan will be in 'great trouble' if President-elect Asif Ali Zardari does not change the policies of his predecessor Pervez Musharraf, which have 'derailed the Kashmir issue', the founder of the outlawed Lashker-e-Taiba has said.Militant ideologue Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who now heads the Jamat-ud-Dawah, called on the people of Pakistan to gather at the Line of Control to show solidarity with the residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
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.
Sharif also urged other parties to boycott the elections.In the event of a collective response, the credibility of the January 8 elections could be seriously called into question. Sharif said that after three days of mourning, he would chalk out a strategy to challenge Musharraf's rule but he rebutted suggestions that he could gain political mileage from her demise.
Unfazed by the demands from the estranged ally PML-N and the influential lawyers movement, Pakistan's ruling PPP has decided against re-instating deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry to his previous post and said he will have to work under the incumbent if re-appointed.
The decision against imposing Emergency was taken after Musharraf met legal experts, security officials and leaders from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.
The nomination of Husain Haqqani as the new Pakistani ambassador to the United States, by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, is being seen as a resounding slap on the face of President Pervez Musharraf. Haqqani -- a former journalist, diplomat and currently associate professor at Boston University is one of Musharraf's fiercest critics. In fact, Haqqani has not visited Pakistan for years, fearing possible imprisonment. Haqqani has been scathing in his attacks of Bush govt
The blast occurred in the GOR-II area of Lahore, Dawn news channel said, quoting witnesses who said the explosion took place in a vehicle bearing an official number plate.
While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting -- including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment -- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks, New York Times said the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.
