In the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Pakistan Army chief has informed the country's leadership that if tensions with India mount further, the military will have to move troops from its restive tribal areas to the eastern borders, ending the war against local militants.
There was some miscommunication, says Zardari Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday blamed "miscommunication" with India for Islamabad seemingly going back on its promise to send Director General of ISI to New Delhi and instead said a Director-level officer will be coming. Zardari claimed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during a telephonic talk with, had requested for sending "Director". "There was a miscommunication... We had announced that a Director will come
Pakistan on Saturday did an about turn on sending the Inter-Services Intelligence chief to India, in connection with the probe into the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying a representative of the spy agency would be sent instead of him.The decision was made at a late night meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of the powerful army. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also joined the meeting.
Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari and her three children, who arrived in Islamabad late on Thursday night, had a brief chance to see the body before the plane left for Sukkur near Lakarna.
In contradiction to Pakistani President's interview to an English daily where he said he was ready to work with India in the 26/11 case, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi asserted that Pakistan will not buckle under pressure mounted on the Mumbai attacks issue.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has reiterated that Islamabad is ready to cooperate with New Delhi to bring the Mumbai attack perpetrators to justice.
President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistan will not allow its territory to be used against India for any acts of terror and is ready to cooperate with it to punish the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks. "Pakistan is ready to cooperate with India to punish the perpetrators of the terror attacks in Mumbai. Pakistan has assured that it would not allow its territory to be used against India for any acts of terror," Zardari told the Financial Times.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari does not believe that India's demand to take action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the mastermind of the terror attacks on Mumbai, is a 'major hurdle' and was hopeful that relations would be normalised soon between the two neighbours."I don't think the issue of Hafiz Saeed is a major hurdle in the normalisation of our relations. I am hopeful that ties between the two countries will be restored very soon," Zardari said.
Bhutto, who was scheduled to go on a four-day trip to Dubai where her husband Asif Ali Zardari, her daughter and her mother currently live, was stopped at the international airport in Islamabad.
Amid main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's demand that Pervez Musharraf be tried for treason, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said the fate of the former military ruler will be decided by the people and Parliament and ruled out using his powers on "frivolous issues of the past".
Political activities will now be allowed in Pakistan's Federally Administrative Tribal Areas under a slew of reforms unveiled by President Asif Ali Zardari for the Taliban-infested tribal belt in a bid to extricate the lawless region from the grip of militants. Describing the move as a gift to the nation on Pakistan's 63rd Independence Day, Zardari said people in the seven tribal areas can now have an identity as they will be able to participate in political activities.
Both countries have always supported the peaceful use of civil nuclear energy and an agreement in this connection is expected to be signed during the President's visit to China which began Tuesday, Ambassador Masood Khan said. The two countries will ink several agreements in the fields of technology, agriculture and minerals. They will also sign an investment protocol to their existing free trade agreement to boost investments in Pakistan, he told Geo News channel.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari secretly met the director of America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Michael Hayden on his recent US visit, a media report said on Monday.
Acknowledging that the peace process has been under strain in recent months, India and Pakistan on Wednesday announced that cross-Line of Control trade in Jammu and Kashmir will commence on October 21 and vowed to take severe action against any elements directing or involved in terrorist acts, giving fresh momentum for an "an early and full normalisation of bilateral relations".
Arrangements for initiating trade across Line of Control and its infrastructural logistics are being given final touches ahead of a formal announcement expected following the meeting between the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
Talking to media persons, Qureshi said that the peace process between India and Pakistan had not stalled but admitted that there had been 'hiccups'.
Not a single reference to the LeT. Not a single reference to its continuing terrorist infrastructure. And, we have provided dignity to Pakistan's baseless allegations against Baloch freedom-fighters by agreeing to make a reference to Balochistan in the joint statement in the context of terrorism by indirectly bringing on record Pakistan's projection of the late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and other Baloch leaders as terrorists, bemoans B Raman
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is hopeful that disputes related to Siachen and Sir Creek will be resolved very soon with India, creating an atmosphere for the two countries to achieve a breakthrough on the long-standing Kashmir issue."All the possible solutions on Kashmir will be discussed first in a parliamentary committee on Kashmir and then the final solution will be approved by parliament," he said.
"It was not my intention in any way to hurt Zardari Sahib's feelings," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today on his virtual public snub to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.
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's ruling Pakistan People's Party chief Asif Ali Zardari appears set to sweep Saturday's presidential poll and would be expected to tackle problems like rising militancy and economic malaise after his election.Sources said that Zardari expects to poll over 60 per cent of the 700 members in the electoral college, in an election necessitated by former President Pervez Musharraf's resignation on August 18.
'If I am elected president, one of my highest priorities will be to support the prime minister, the National assembly and the senate to amend the constitution to bring back into balance the powers of the presidency and thereby reduce its ability to bring down democratic governance,' Zardari said in an Op-Ed piece in The Washington Post.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is locked in a power struggle with the army over his plans to ease tensions with India and his assertion that Taliban, not India, is the greatest threat to his country, a news report said today.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that terrorism, not India, is the greatest "threat" to his country, a significant shift in Islamabad's view of its neighbour that provoked controversy back home.
A three-member bench led by Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed dismissed Sarabjit's review petition on merit and upheld the death sentence awarded to him by an anti-terrorism court in 1991. The apex court gave its verdict after his counsel failed to appear in court.
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.
'I do not consider India a military threat. The question is that India has the capability. Capability is what matters. With regard to intention, I think we both have our good intentions. India is a reality, Pakistan is a reality, but Taliban is a threat, an international threat, to our way of life,' The Daily Times quoted Zardari as saying.
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.
Dr Singh and Zardari will meet again in Shram-el Sheikh in Egypt on the sidelines of NAM Summit next month to take stock of the outcome of the Foreign Secretaries meet.
In the first top-level contact between India and Pakistan after Mumbai attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will meet in Russia on the sidelines of a multilateral summit next week to break ice in the bilateral ties.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Russia next week, according to a source in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.However, the Prime Minister's Office refused to confirm or deny the news.Dr Singh is scheduled to visit Yaketenaburg, an industrial town in Russia, on June 15-16 to attend the Brazil-Russia-India-China summit.
Two days after saying that he did not consider India a threat to Pakistan and it was the internal terrorist threat from within that is of concern, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was splitting hairs saying the larger threat from India and the so-called existential internal threat as the US has continued to describe it, were different.
Concerned over increasing influence of Taliban in Pakistan, the United States on Wednesday told top leadership in Islamabad that the "era of lip service was over" and it was now time to work plans and be very specific.
'We must make viable peace. This (Kashmir) is a solvable problem that must not take further lives,' Zardari said in a 'special vision statement' read out at a conference organised by Tehelka magazine in London on Friday. Pending a final settlement, 'we agree with the statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh supporting an autonomous Kashmir running much of its own affairs', Zardari said.
Holbrooke declared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, "We do not think that Pakistan is a failed State. We think it's a State under extreme test from the enemies who are also our enemies and who have the same common enemy -- the United States and Pakistan. It just isn't (a failed State). But it is a State under enormous social, political and economic pressure. And India is always a factor."
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said his intelligence believes that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is dead, but admitted they have no proof.
With Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif sharpening his rhetoric against Pervez Musharraf, the ruling Pakistan People's Party said that it was waiting for an opportune moment to offer an exit to the embattled President."Pakistan People's Party will be the one that sends President Pervez Musharraf home," its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday night. Zardari's comments came in the wake of a demand by his Sharif for Musharraf to be made accountable for actions.
"Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has decided to rename the Prime Minister's Secretariat as Prime Minister's Office with immediate effect," said a brief statement issued by the premier's media office.
Warning that Pakistan's desire for peace should not be seen as 'a sign of weakness', President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said the country's armed forces are ready to tackle all challenges and 'external and internal' threats."Pakistan is a peace-loving nation. We believe in peace with honour. However, our desire for peace must not be taken as a sign of weakness," he said in his address at a passing out parade at the naval academy in Karachi.
Despite a last-minute US mediation, the leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition have failed to reach a deal on restoring deposed judges, increasing the probability that ministers belonging to former premier Nawaz Sharif's party might quit the Cabinet on Monday.