Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has barred Sports Minister Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani from attending the opening ceremony of the hockey World Cup in Delhi, according to a media report in Islamabad, on Saturday. Jakhrani was scheduled to visit India to attend the opening ceremony of the World Cup and also watch the match between India and Pakistan at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Sunday.
The Taliban expanding its writ is no longer the primary concern of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Rather it is the unrest in Balochistan that is troubling him the most.Presiding over a meeting of senior officials that was convened to discuss the Balochistan situation, Gilani said the Baloch conflict is the most daunting task before the government."The situation in Balochistan is the most challenging task currently facing the government," Gilani said.
Pakistan is prepared to work with sincerity to open a "new chapter in improving relations" with India and the two sides should share credible information to counter possible future terrorist threats, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Monday.
Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gilani today condemned the bomb blast in Pune, saying Pakistan was against terrorism in all its manifestation and maintained that his country wants better relations and a 'meaningful dialogue' with India.
The joint statement signed by him and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "underlines our concerns over India's interference in Balochistan and other areas of Pakistan", Gilani told his first press conference after his return from Sharm-el Sheikh.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday defended the Pakistan government's decision to accept aid for flood victims from India, saying those opposed to the move should give reasons for their stance. "I would like to ask the critics of India's aid on what ground we should refuse it. It will be a narrow approach if we refuse aid from India," Gilani said. Pakistan on Friday accepted India's offer to provide $5 million for the victims of the devastating floods.
India's latest offer of talks has been taken up by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
India's latest offer of talks has been taken up by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said unless the "core issues" of Kashmir and sharing of river waters are resolved, ties between India and Pakistan cannot improve.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has rejected reports that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan, saying the country will act if Britain and the US share actionable intelligence about his whereabouts.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has criticised India for refusing to restart the stalled composite dialogue, and has urged the international community to step in and resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.
Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif has asked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to take the issue of India's alleged involvement in fanning insurgency in Balochistan to the United Nations."We were told in the meeting that it was confirmed that India was involved in the Balochistan unrest. It is unfortunate that India is interfering in fomenting unrest in Pakistan," Sharif said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this month, effectively ruling out the possibility of talks with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the summit. Pakistan will be represented by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the meeting to be held at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago during November 27-29, official sources told PTI.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that Islamabad saw India's offer of talks "positively," saying solutions to problems between the two countries cannot be found through wars.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said the US would support all efforts for the early resumption of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan, as she responded to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's call for US meditation in resolving outstanding issues like Kashmir.
In a move towards political reconciliation in Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday met opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif offering an "olive branch", as reinstated chief justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry returned to his post after two years of protests over his ouster.
Pakistan's military operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan will be taken to its logical conclusion despite a wave of attacks by the militants as 'failure is not an option,' Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of a major crackdown on lawyers and opposition party activists ahead of a nationwide protest.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said relations between Pakistan and India cannot be improved without the resolution of the Kashmir issue, which is holding up peace in South Asia.
In fresh embarrassment to the Pakistan government, Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani's statement on the possibility of sending an investigation team to India was contradicted by his cabinet colleague Sherry Rehman, who denied that any such move had been initiated by Islamabad.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has decided to send a parliamentary delegation to attend the much-hyped cross-border wedding of tennis star Sania Mirza and cricketer Shoaib Malik.
Seeking a resolution of the Kashmir issue for lasting peace, Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday said Pakistani people were disappointed that the United States Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke's mandate did not include India and hoped that the Obama administration would review the matter.
Notwithstanding the chill in bilateral relations, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have sent their New Year greetings to their Indian counterparts.Zardari and Gilani have sent their greetings to President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh through the Ministry of External Affairs, sources said on Wednesday.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday made an unannounced visit to the restive Swat valley where troops are engaged in flushing out Taliban militants.A top-level review of the security situation and the repatriation of the displaced people, uprooted by insurgency, was the highlight of the visit. The visit also assumes significance with reports of the army being on the verge of wrapping up the intensive operation.
As Pakistani warplanes conducted sorties for the second straight day, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said the two countries cannot afford tension along their border. "Nobody wants tensions on the borders and we are moving responsibly and with caution," Gilani told reporters on the sidelines of an official ceremony in Islamabad.
Lauding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "statesmanship" and his "bold vision of peace and prosperity," Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has said dialogue was the only way forward for peace in South Asia. Responding to Singh's statement in the Lok Sabha on the Indo-Pak joint statement of Egypt, Gilani reciprocated the "sentiments for peace" expressed by him and said terrorism was a common threat to the two countries.
The Pakistan government has blocked a resolution moved in the UN Security Council for imposing sanctions against former Inter-Services-Intelligence chief retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul over his alleged links with al-Qaeda and Taliban, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday.
Amid India's suspicions of the involvement of the Inter Services Intelligence in the planning of Mumbai terror strikes, the chief of the Pakistani spy agency on Friday called on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad.The Director General of the ISI, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met Gilani and briefed him on the prevailing security situation, an official statement said.No further details about the meeting were available.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said he would hold talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the margins of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt with an 'open mind' as he believed any 'pause' in bilateral dialogue would benefit terrorists. "If talks were on pause, that benefited the terrorists," Gilani told reporters in Islamabad before embarking on a four-day visit to attend the NAM summit.
The army operation against militants in Swat and Malakand division will soon be over but Pakistan will continue to fight terrorism and take the campaign to its "logical conclusion", Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday. "The nation will soon hear the good news... soon the army operation will be over.
Aiming at a "decisive" victory over the Taliban, Pakistan on Thursday pressed with air and ground operation in the north-western tribal belt, where fierce fighting killed nine soldiers and 14 militants, including a son of a hardline cleric who negotiated the Swat peace deal.
Pakistan has said it could focus on American demands to do more in the war on terror only if the US used its influence with India to lessen tensions and to press for resumption of the stalled composite dialogue process.
Highlighting the need to root out terrorism, Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday told his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh that 'the present state of unrest in the region demanded more cooperation in combating the menace.Gilani telephoned Singh today to congratulate him on winning the crucial trust vote and said that his success "is the success of democracy and such democratic norms must be encouraged in the region for strengthening the relations."
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of Hafiz Saeed, chief of the banned organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
The findings of the report will be shared with India and the world community, Gilani told reporters at the airport in Islamabad after arriving in the provincial capital of Punjab province from Islamabad.
Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday directed the Interior Ministry to send a team of experts to Sri Lanka to probe if elements based there were linked to the terrorist attack on Lankan cricketers in Lahore.Gilani issued the direction during a meeting in Islamabad with Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who apprised him on the overall security situation in the country.
"We want relations with India on the basis of equality. If Pakistan and India do not enter into negotiations for the betterment of the region, then someone else would get the benefit. If there will not be bilateral talks, the terrorists will take advantage of it," The News quoted Gilani, as saying.
Pakistan is taking India's dossier on the Mumbai terror attacks "extremely seriously" and will "have to act fast" to complete its probe, Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has said. "The dossier passed on to the government of Pakistan, we are taking it extremely seriously, and we have already started (an) investigation and the results will come soon," he told the Financial Times daily in an interview.
During a meeting with visiting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Gilani expressed Pakistan's "keen desire to defuse the situation in South Asia in the wake of the Mumbai attacks". "Pakistan will complete its inquiry into the dossier of information provided by India as soon as possible and will share its results with India and other countries in due course", he said.
Pakistanis would like to see the armed forces "confined to garrisons" as the country has already paid an "enormous' cost for frequent interventions by military in politics, Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday.
