Leader of opposition and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani raised the issue of the joint statement between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Gilani, during his five minute meeting with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at his residence on Monday.
India and Pakistan's decision to carry on with the dialogue process drew mixed response in Kashmir on Friday with mainstream parties welcoming it and separatists insisting that the Sharm-el-Sheikh meeting was "inconclusive" without the participation of Kashmiris.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is committed to shed some constitutional powers well before March 30, the deadline he set for materializing his plan, well-placed official sources have said.
India on Tuesday demanded a 'visible response' and undertaking from Pakistan on bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to justice, as officials and leaders of the two countries prepare to meet in Sharm-el-Sheikh to review Islamabad's actions on its promises.
In a significant move, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has agreed to relinquish some key powers like appointment of the army chief and dissolution of Parliament.Pakistan's political parties have also reached a basic consensus on the move, which they claim will bolster Pakistan's democratic constitution, which has been heavily altered by the country's successive military rulers. Zardari also wants to restore Pakistan's constitution as it was made in 1973.
Separately, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said during a meeting with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store in Islamabad that Pakistan wanted its ties with India to normalise "by resolving bilateral disputes through a sustained and meaningful dialogue process."However, "engaging in talks for the sake of talks would serve no purpose," he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Foreign Office.
China and Pakistan on Thursday signed two agreements and MoUs pertaining to space technology and energy as Beijing pledged $190 million for a satellite project.
India on Tuesday strongly objected to Pakistan's attempt to link Kashmir issue to terrorism in the region and maintained that the bilateral dialogue would resume only when Islamabad creates conditions for it. "It (terrorism) has nothing to do with Kashmir. Terror, whether it is in Kashmir, in Mumbai or elsewhere, is abominable," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said. He was responding to Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's remarks.
Claiming that the Kashmir issue holds the key to durable peace in the region, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday sought a 'constructive and purposeful' dialogue with India to resolve the problem. "Pakistan remains committed to finding a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people," Gilani said while addressing a meeting in Islamabad.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is on shaky grounds, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is pro-America and Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani is doing well in taking military action against terrorists in his country, a top Republican Senator said on Monday.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani discussed the regional situation during a meeting on Tuesday and decided "to carry out a credible investigation of the evidence provided by India", The News daily said quoting sources
Pakistan's ruling coalition on Thursday rejected President Pervez Musharraf's call for reconciliation and announced that a chargesheet for his impeachment will be finalised on Friday, but apparently faced differences among allies on giving a "safe passage" to him.
In an interview with Outlook magazine, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in an apparent volte-face, said Pakistan actually never handed any dossier to India during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the NAM summit at Sharm-el-Sheikh in July.
The sharing of river waters between India and Pakistan is a "sensitive issue" that has the potential for triggering a war between the two countries, an adviser to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.
Manmohan Singh and Yusuf Raza Gilani hold the key to South Asia's progress, observes Sanjaya Baru, former media advisor to the Prime Minister.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has once again said that Islamabad would continue its support to the Kashmiri people and the government's decision to give autonomy to Gilgit Baltistan does not mean that it has shelved the Kashmir issue."We gave internal autonomy, sovereignty to Gilgit Baltistan which was a long standing demand of its people but this does not mean that we have forgotten Kashmir issue. We will continue to give moral and diplomatic support," he said.
Validating New Delhi's fears that Islamabad was using US security aid to beef up its military against it, the Obama administration has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying the Harpoon anti-ship missile and maritime surveillance aircraft P-3C for land attacks for potential use against India.
Tahawwur Rana facilitated David Coleman's foreign visits and was aware of his links to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, writes strategic expert B Raman.
America's top military official arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday for consultations with Pakistan's civil and military leadership in the wake of tension with India following the terror attacks in Mumbai.
The Pakistani Air Force has started the production of pilot-less drones, days after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani pressed the United States to transfer the sensitive technology for a more potent type, which is used by the American military to target the Taliban.According to details issued by the PAF, the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra has commenced the production of pilot-less planes Falco Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has said that Islamabad should not beg New Delhi for talks."We should tell India that if they are not ready for talks then Pakistan is also not eager to enter any talk process," Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told the House in categorical words.Chaudhry Nisar was referring to the talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Chief of Army staff General Deepak Kapoor on Sunday said it was important to ensure that the control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons command does not go to "wrong hands".
What was the need for the indecent hurry shown by Dr Manmohan Singh at Sharm-el-Sheikh for fresh talks with Pakistan? If we had waited for a few months more till a clearer picture emerged from the proceedings of the anti-terrorism court, would the heavens have fallen on our heads, asks B Raman
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who addressed party Members of Parliament on Thursday, backed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the joint statement signed between Pakistani PM Yusuf Raza Gilani and him in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
What we need to understand is that when Pakistan feels cornered its leaders will seek assistance and sympathy and export mangoes; their purpose served, they will revert to form and export jihadis. The way to handle Pakistan is not through kind gestures and misplaced magnanimity; these are taken as signs of weakness and generally used to bargain for more.
Leader of opposition L K Advani on Tuesday led a delegation of 146 members of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and met President Pratibha Devisingh Patil to intervene in the row triggered by the joint-statement issued after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani at Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt -- wherein the issue of Baluchsitan was mentioned for the first time.
Pakistan on Thursday did not confirm or deny reports that it handed over a dossier to New Delhi on the alleged Indian involvement in the unrest in Balochistan, saying the issue involved intelligence matters which cannot be discussed in public. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the matter had been adequately covered by the joint statement issued after the meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Thursday defended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on the joint statement issued after his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt.However, his statement had few takers, and most experts feel that the reference to Baluchistan in the joint statement would prove to be a costly blunder.The Bharatiya Janata Party has also criticised Dr Singh.
Fresh details have emerged about David Headley, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October for plotting terror attacks in India, with the United States media reporting that the terror suspect was born to a Pakistani diplomat father and an American mother.At the age of 16, Headley, who was born Daood Gilani, was taken out of Pakistan, where he attended a military school, and brought to Philadelphia by his mother.
United States has stepped up diplomatic efforts to defuse the deepening political crisis in Pakistan, with Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke asking the country's top leadership to resolve differences with the PML-N so that they could focus on the war against militancy.
Senior leaders of Bhartiya Janata Party L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj on Friday termed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's talks with his Pakistani counterpart Gilani as a complete surrender of the national interests.
Prime Minister Mamohan Singh on Friday defended the stance taken by the Indian government, in the joint statement issued with Pakistan, after his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani at the sidelines of the Non-Aligned summit in Egypt.Dr Singh said that he had discussed the terror attack on Mumbai with Gilani, and stressed that sustained, effective and credible action needs to be taken by Pakistan to prevent terror activities on its soil.
Preparing the ground for the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Egypt, Islamabad has handed over a fresh dossier on its probe into the Mumbai terror attacks to New Delhi which is figuring out what it amounts to.
Against the backdrop of industrialised nations (G-8) putting curbs on full nuclear cooperation with countries like India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for Paris on Monday hoping that the visit would help India and France "build" its strategic partnership in nuclear energy, defence and other areas.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will meet Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt on July 16, the Pakistan Foreign Office has said.Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said that the foreign secretaries of both countries would also meet during the summit.
Pakistan's Consul General in Chicago personally knew both David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, nabbed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for planning to carry out a major terror attack in India at the behest of LeT, the US authorities have claimed.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki Moon on Tuesday said he had impressed upon top Pakistani leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that they should fully cooperate with India and thoroughly investigate the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Addressing a press conference on returning from his visit to India and Pakistan, he said the Pakistani leaders had 'committed to me that they will fully cooperate' with India in the investigation
The JeI (J&K) also has several trusts for running schools to disseminate orthodox Islamic education, has a youth wing and has numerous publications for spreading its fundamentalist ideology.
A Pakistani probe team has arrived in Sri Lanka to investigate whether there were any local links, including the possibility of the role of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, on the attack on the Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March.
Ahead of the meeting of the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in New York, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday urged Pakistan to shed its mindset of using terror as an instrument of state policy against New Delhi and take action against those involved in the terror attack on Mumbai. He made it clear that there was no change in India's stand on Pakistan since the Sharm-el-Sheikh talks with his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.