Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Friday lifted the six-week-old state of emergency and revived the Constitution as part of efforts to counter criticism by the world community and opposition parties which have expressed apprehensions that the upcoming elections would not be free and fair.
A report, titled 'Threat to VVIPs, politicians, foreign missions and military installations', said terrorists could carry out suicide attacks disguised as women or as military or police personnel.
India and Pakistan have a real opportunity to take relations forward after the exit of President Pervez Musharraf, feels Adrian Levy, co-author of Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy.
Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti, who heads a faction of the Jamhoori Watan Party, submitted an application to Quetta city police station for lodging an FIR against Musharraf in connection with the murder of his father and 66 other people of his tribe.
Pakistan's leading newspapers on Tuesday said former President Pervez Musharraf's exit from the country's top post was 'inevitable' and wondered why he took so long to step down, while pointing out the need for the nation to move on.
In a statement made available to rediff.com, Obama, said, 'Musharraf has made the right decision to step down as President of Pakistan. It is in the interests of his country and the Pakistani people to end the political crisis that has immobilized the coalition government for too long.'
The Pakistan Cricket Board chief Nasim Ashraf quit on Monday in what is seen as one of the first fall-outs following the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf. Ashraf's resignation was announced by the PCB just an hour after Musharraf resigned.
"No impeachment or no chargesheet can stand against me... But I think this is not the time for individual bravado. This is the time for serious thought. In the interest of the country, I have decided to resign. The resignation will reach the National Assembly speaker shortly," the 65-year-old former army chief said in an emotional internationally televised address.
"President Musharraf has been a good ally and everyone knows that we disagreed with his decision in terms of the state of emergency that he declared. But he was just to his word, he took off his uniform. It is now a democratic government in Pakistan," she said. "I want to keep our focus on what we must do with the democratic government of Pakistan," she said while answering a question on the political crisis in Pakistan.
The Al Qaeda has launched a blistering attack on Pakistan's beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf accusing him of betraying Muslims by supporting the US-led war in Afghanistan.
The US may not want to interfere in the impeachment process against President Pervez Musharraf terming it an internal affair, but is apparently willing to help ensure "full indemnity" and "honourable stay" in Pakistan for its key ally in the war on terror should he agree to quit.
The president is also of the view that the Gwadar port project in Balochistan will be affected if he leaves the scene and consequently, Pakistan's "time-tested relations with China could suffer a setback", official sources told the Dawn newspaper. Musharraf also believes that in his absence, no leader or party will be "able to maintain cordial relations with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement," they said.
The US, which backed President Pervez Musharraf for aiding the 'war on terror', on Friday said the decision to impeach the embattled leader is an "internal matter" of Pakistan, but must be "consistent with the rule of law and their constitution."
Umar Mushtaq dissects the prospects of the pro-Musharraf party and says even if it wins the January elections, it will only have a razor thin majority.
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.
In a big blow to Musharraf, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth despite last-minute assurances from the dictator that he would soon lift the state of emergency.
Amid pressure from India and the US to rein in the Inter-Services Intelligence, President Pervez Musharraf has come to its rescue saying any attempt to target the spy agency will weaken Pakistan as it is "the first line of defence" and lashed out at his detractors for calling him an American stooge.
Khan was imprisoned by the government last week under terrorism charges after trying to lead a student protest in Lahore.
'A resurgent Jaish could be a reflection of the Pakistani security establishment's view that with the region moving ever closer to a post-US Afghanistan, it is time to redirect attention to Kashmir.'
Pakistan is bigger than Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea combined. There's 156 million people. They have 24 to 55 nuclear weapons. They have not only the bomb, the thermonuclear device, they have the missile that can couple with the bomb, and it can fly all the way to the Mediterranean.
Bhutto's planned long march, which will traverse a distance of nearly 300 km, is expected to be the PPP's largest show of strength since her homecoming rally in Karachi on October 18 that was marred by a suicide attack, which killed nearly 140 people and injured hundreds more.
Faced with the Sunday deadline, the Pakistan People's Party on Friday said that it would announce the name of the new prime minister this weekend. However, senior party leaders continued to wrestle with differences on the issue over a month after the parliamentary polls.Differences in the PPP on who should lead the coalition government continued with vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, once a frontrunner for the post, saying he had suggested a formula to Zardari.
Pakistan's caretaker Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney has appealed to President Pervez Musharraf to convert the death sentence of Indian national Sarabjit Singh to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds.Burney sent an appeal for mercy to Musharraf on Wednesday to convert the death sentence of Sarabjit into life imprisonment on humanatarian grounds, as he has already spent 17 years in jail which is more than life imprisonment.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday summoned Pakistan's parliament on March 24 to elect the new Prime Minister, though there was still no word from the Pakistan People's Party and its allies on their nominee for the top post.Musharraf received the official communique regarding the convening of the National Assembly to elect the leader of the House from the Prime Minister's Secretariat on Thursday morning.The President signed the summary.
The Pakistan government on Wednesday deferred by 30 days the execution of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who was set to be hanged on April 1 following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990. President Pervez Musharraf deferred the execution of Sarabjit by 30 days after the Indian government made a formal appeal for clemency yesterday, sources in Pakistan's Foreign Office said.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may accept New Delhi's request of clemency on humanitarian grounds for Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national on death row for carrying out multiple bomb explosions in the Islamic nation's Punjab province, in which 14 people were killed in 1990. A Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) official said the President could consider pardoning Singh. "If that happens, it will be purely on humanitarian grounds," the Nation quoted him as saying.
Pakistan's National Assembly on Wednesday endorsed the proclamation of the emergency by President Pervez Musharraf amidst a boycott by opposition lawmakers and a protest by Pakistan People's Party workers.
'Some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism, thereby weakening the government and the nation's resolve and diluting the efficacy of its action to control this menace,' it added.
'Despite the subsequent events at Kargil and the October 12, 1999 military coup in Pakistan, the Lahore initiative firmly established Vajpayee's credentials as a crusader of peace,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Government ministers, Human Rights Watch pointed out, have repeatedly indicated that should the Supreme Court rule Musharraf's election illegal, the military could suspend the Constitution, impose martial law and fire the judges.
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.
The newly-announced cabinet is expected to take oath on Monday at the President's House.
The apex court detailed its views in a 26-page judgment on Friday on a petition seeking a review of its earlier validation of the emergency. A 13-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar refused to take back an earlier judgment in favour of Musharraf. The judgement also made observations about the deposed judges, the lawyers' movement and the media.
Musharraf also directed the Sindh province government to hold an inquiry and submit a report within 48 hours
Claiming that his position is 'strong', Musharraf refused to bow to pressure from the PPP-PML-N combine and step down. Musharraf's allies the PML-Q backed the President and said that the PPP and PML-N together did not have a two-thirds majority and would therefore be unable to strip the president of his powers or impeach him.
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.
Two prominent US Senators on Monday said Pakistan's beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf should look for a "graceful exit" instead of being forced out of power in the wake of parliamentary election results in which opposition parties scored stunning victories.
Her interview with President Pervez Musharraf, a significant part of which was later denied by the President's spokesperson, and her simplistic deconstruction of 'all things Pakistan' is increasingly making her a hate-subject in the country.
The Bush administration may fail to save its most trusted friend because the PPP and PML-N are determined to form a coalition and clip all those powers through which a president can dissolve parliament.
The joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism met for the third time after it was set up in line with a decision taken during a meeting between President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the margins of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana in September 2006. According to reports, India may raise the recent terror attacks in Jaipur, Ajmer and Hyderabad in the meeting while Pakistan is expected to sought details of last year's Samjhauta Express blast.
