A leader of the secular Awami National Party was killed and another injured in two roadside bomb attacks in Pakistan's restive northwest on Sunday, the latest in a string of strikes by the Taliban against the party's workers ahead of the May 11 polls.
'Under the circumstances, this announcement may remain limited to bravado and little else, adding momentum to Imran's narrative of victimhood,' points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Pakistani Taliban chief has ordered militants to hit the leaders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling party after the government lifted a moratorium on death penalty and set up military courts to try terrorists.
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has defended its attacks on politicians, claiming its fighters were targeting liberal political parties for their secular ideology and support for military operations.
With influential cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri descending on Islamabad with swarms of his supporters, Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday lobbied with top political leaders, including Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif, to uphold the democratic system.
Bashir Ahmed Bilour, a leader of Pashtun nationalist party, was among the eight killed during Taliban's suicide attack at Peshawar on Saturday.
A suicide bomber on Tuesday targeted leaders of the secular Awami National Party in Peshawar city of northeast Pakistan, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more in the latest in a string of terrorist attacks ahead of next month's general election.
Five people were killed and 15 others injured on Saturday when a bomb went off near a secular political party's election office in Karachi, hours after thousands of Pakistanis began voting in a landmark general election. The blast occurred near an election office of the Awami National Party in Landhi area of Karachi.
The assassination of 69-year-old Taliban critic Bashir Ahmed Bilour is a reminder of the violent relationship between the terror group and the Awami National Party. Tahir Ali reports
The Pakistani Taliban has said that it will carry out more attacks on "secular" political parties like the ANP and MQM, warning people to stay away from their rallies, a day after a blast outside an ANP gathering injured about 10 people.
A resolution introduced in Pakistan's parliament on Friday sought support for the beleaguered government, currently facing its worst crisis since coming to power nearly four years ago due to a standoff with the judiciary and the military.
A Pakistani parliamentarian has demanded that Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha should resign following the claims that he travelled to Arab countries to discuss a move to oust President Asif Ali Zardari.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will be accompanied by ex-premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and several of his cabinet colleagues, including Interior Minister Rehman Malik, for his visit to Mohali on Wednesday to watch the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan, a media report has said.
In the first such meeting after his sudden return from Dubai, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari reviewed the political situation in Pakistan with premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, even as the government dismissed as "speculative" reports that he planned to travel to London.
Five persons, including a leader of the Awami National Party, were killed and 10 others injured on Friday when a powerful bomb went off in a busy market on the outskirts of Quetta city in southwest Pakistan. The bomb went off at Kuchlak Bazar on Friday morning near the venue of a rally organised by the ANP, which is part of the ruling coalition at the centre.
Violence and arson once again returned to Karachi with 11 persons being killed and 16 others injured following the murder of Awami National Party office bearer Ubaidullah Yousufzai.
A suicide bomber on Monday struck a political gathering of North Western Frontier Province's ruling Awami National Party to celebrate the renaming of the Pushtun dominated province as Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, killing 25 people and leaving nearly 100 others injured in Timergara in Lower Dir.The bomber detonated his lethal explosives at an open air gathering in the main town of insurgency-infested Lower Dir. Twenty five people were killed and nearly 100 others were injured.
At least 14 people were killed and 40 others injured on Saturday as violence flared up in Karachi in the run-up to a tense by-election in one of the most sensitive and ethnically divided areas of the city. The violence flared up after one of the contesting parties in the by-polls the Awami National Party announced it was boycotting the election.
A bomb blast on Wednesday injured a provincial legislator and two others in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, which has witnessed a series of terror attacks in recent weeks.
A Pakistani legislator was killed in a suicide attack in the northwestern Swat valley on Tuesday. Details awaited.
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.
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.
Ten people were killed on Monday when militants attacked the home of a provincial legislator's brother in Pakistan's restive north-western Swat valley even as the government banned the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Taliban militants fired a rocket at the home of the brother of Awami National Party legislator Waqar Ahmed Khan in Kabal sub-district, killing his brother, two nephews and seven security guards.
Smaller parties in Pakistan have launched a bid to patch up differences between President Asif Ali Zardari and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif before matters reach a point of no return.
After decades of bloodbath in the name of jihad or holy war, terrorists are changing gear and indulging in qattal, an act by which they kill even their own people, a top Pakistan leader said. "Terrorists are now replacing the term jihad with the Islamic term qattal for their acts," Hasham Baber, additional secretary general of Pakistan's Awami National Party said.
The Pakistan People's Party on Tuesday nominated 51-year-old Mirza, a medical graduate, and Faisal Karim Kundi as its candidates for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker respectively of the Lower House of Parliament. The two candidates are expected to win as the Pakistan People's Party and its allies -- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam -- have a majority in the National Assembly.
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.
The PPP, PML-N and ANL together hold 225 out of the required 228 seats to gain a two-thirds majority, which would give the coalition the power to impeach President Musharraf and revoke presidential powers to dissolve the National Assembly.
Former senator Amarjeet Malhotra has been included in the list of suspects involved in the killing of Singh, 52, who was the Special Assistant to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister on minority affairs.
At least 10 persons were killed and 20 others injured when three bombs ripped through a cinema hall in this restive northwestern Pakistani city on Tuesday.
The Awami National Party has threatened that if the Pakistani government executed the Kalabagh dam project, it would take up the matter with international agencies.
'The army has neither any role in the country's electoral process nor has it any desire to do so,' he said.
The Pakistani election on July 25 has a strong Indian flavour and connection, says Vivek Shukla.
Hafiz Saeed-backed Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT) had fielded 265 candidates -- including 13 women -- countrywide.
The twin attacks came as former prime minister Nawaz Sharif along with his daughter Maryam returned to the country to face arrest in a corruption case.
Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party has suffered setbacks in country's biggest ever by-polls for 41 national and provincial assembly constituencies, in which the ruling PML-N appeared to have consolidated its position.
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has said that it would not rule out a ceasefire if Pakistan's new government "shows seriousness" about its offer of holding a dialogue.
At least five people, including a child, were killed and 29 others injured on Tuesday in a powerful car bomb suicide attack by the Taliban targeting a senior military officer in this restive northwestern Pakistani city.
Pakistan's major political parties on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to Lahore, saying it was a "new beginning of relations" and will help improve ties between the two countries.
PTI leader Naeenul Haq told media on Saturday night that consultations are on to complete the number game.
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