He attributed the nation's predicament to unseen forces orchestrating decisions from behind the scenes, reducing elected officials to mere puppets.
Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said that President Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, former federal ministers Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Ejaz-ul-Haq, Amir Muqam and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi faced threats to their lives from extremists.
Trying to fish in troubled waters, Pakistan's parliament on Thursday passed a resolution condemning the hanging of Afzal Guru and demanded the return of his body to his family.
The attack surprised political observers, as the JUI is perceived as being pro-Taliban.
Pakistan's hardline Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday escaped an assassination bid by a suicide bomber, who blew himself up near a police post in the country's restive northwest, killing at least seven people and injuring 18 others.
The two-day India visit by Islamic hardliner and Pakistan's Jamiat-ul-Islami chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is believed to be aimed at reinforcing the anti-Vastanvi forces at the Darul-Uloom Deoband seminary in Uttar Pradesh, where the recently appointed vice chancellor Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi had drawn much flak for praising Narendra Modi's governance in Gujarat.
The election of a new prime minister by Pakistan's National Assembly on Friday will be a three-way contest between Raja Parvez Ashraf of the ruling PPP, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi of the main opposition PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Jamiat Ulema e Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, once considered as the patron of Taliban chief Mullah Omer, is today struggling to save his life in Pakistan, as Taliban and Al Qaeda members are chasing him like shadow.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl has blamed the Raymond Davis network for the two suicide attacks on party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and said the murder attempts were a reaction to Fazl's stand taken on the Davis detention issue and drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal region.
"We believe that all the difficulties the country is facing can be resolved with the support of all the political parties," Zardari told journalists after meeting Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The PML-N has indicated that it will support the PPP-led government from outside. Zardari has been working to get the backing of all parties, including the Jamiat, for the government and his meeting with Rehman was part of these efforts.
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.
Khalil, who figured in India's list of most wanted terrorists, was a close aide of Ghazi and used by the government negotiators to hold talks with Ghazi on Monday night.
The meeting is being speculated to have revolved around the recent political developments in the country, with the local media reporting that the agenda of the meeting could have revolved around the upcoming Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit in Pakistan, the ongoing unrest in Balochistan and the upcoming no-confidence motion against Imran Khan.
In a live-address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan also discussed a 'threat letter' that purportedly showed 'evidence' of a foreign conspiracy to topple his coalition government.
The National Assembly session will be held at the Parliament House at 4 pm (local time), according to the schedule issued by the assembly secretariat. It also issued a 24-point agenda for the session and the no-confidence motion is fourth on the agenda.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
Pakistan's National Assembly session was on Thursday adjourned abruptly till Sunday after opposition lawmakers demanded an immediate vote on a no-confidence motion against embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan who has effectively lost majority in the lower house.
Police in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Monday that an initial probe has suggested that the banned terrorist group Islamic State is behind the suicide attack on a political convention of a hardline Islamist party that killed at least 46 people and injured over 100.
Shehbaz Sharif, the joint opposition's candidate for the post of prime minister, on Sunday vowed that the new government in Pakistan want to 'move forward' and not indulge in 'politics of revenge'.
Before the elections, concerns have been raised in the country over the participation of hardline Islamist groups in large numbers.
'We welcome (you) back to the purana Pakistan,' top Opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday, as he took a jibe at ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan following the adoption of a no-confidence vote against him.
Pakistan's embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday shared some details from what he called a "foreign conspiracy letter" with senior journalists and cabinet members, asserting that the document was authentic.
He was the chief of the hardline political party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami.
In a significant ruling, a constitutional Islamic body in Pakistan has said that covering of face, hands and feet was not mandatory for women under Islamic laws.
As many as 174 members voted in favour of the motion in the 342-member House while members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were absent during the voting.
Expressing concern over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, maulanas in Lucknow want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up their cause.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif riefs Opposition on LoC after India's surgical strikes
In another tweet, he congratulated his own government for completing the construction work on time.
The charged PTI supporters, including women and children, showed their solidarity with Khan during the rally that started at 9 pm on Sunday and lasted till 3 am on Monday.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday struck down National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri's controversial move to dismiss a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a major blow to the cricketer-turned politician who is now likely to face a no-trust vote in parliament after the ruling.
The prime minister needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition's bid to topple him.
'The army has neither any role in the country's electoral process nor has it any desire to do so,' he said.
Two of his allied parties also withdrew their support and joined the ranks of the rejuvenated Opposition.
No prime minister in Pakistan's recent history has survived long in office after appointing an ISI chief who did not have the army chief's confidence. Imran may be no exception, observes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad, he said the Opposition has laid all of their cards, but the no-confidence motion against him would not be successful.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances