No let up in crackdown on terror, says Musharraf
The US may not want to interfere in the impeachment process against President Pervez Musharraf terming it an internal affair, but is apparently willing to help ensure "full indemnity" and "honourable stay" in Pakistan for its key ally in the war on terror should he agree to quit.
Indo-Pak talks could resume if Islamabad stops terrorists from crossing the Line of Control into J&K, the Russian foreign ministry said.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may accept New Delhi's request of clemency on humanitarian grounds for Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national on death row for carrying out multiple bomb explosions in the Islamic nation's Punjab province, in which 14 people were killed in 1990. A Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) official said the President could consider pardoning Singh. "If that happens, it will be purely on humanitarian grounds," the Nation quoted him as saying.
The report said the Pakistani president started cooperating with the US only when given a 'stark choice'.
The apex court detailed its views in a 26-page judgment on Friday on a petition seeking a review of its earlier validation of the emergency. A 13-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar refused to take back an earlier judgment in favour of Musharraf. The judgement also made observations about the deposed judges, the lawyers' movement and the media.
We will be flexible, if the other side also shows flexibility, the Pakistan president said.
Former president Pervez Musharraf, who has announced his intentions to return to Pakistan before the 2013 general elections, will formally launch his new political party and unveil its programme in London on October 1.
He was addressing mediapersons at the end of the SAARC Summit.
The report said the crucial meeting involved Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, CIA director General Michael V Hayden, new army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj, the chief of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.
Musharraf said he would certainly consider such a proposal if invited by New Delhi.
Asserting that there was no option but to postpone Pakistan's general election due to the law and order situation created by former premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination, President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday said that the army would be deployed across the country to ensure fair and peaceful polls. "I had always wanted the polls to be held as per schedule on January 8. But the new date is absolutely reasonable," he said in an address to the nation.
Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf kept such a tight lid on intrusions by Pakistani troops into Indian territory in Kargil in 1999 that the Inter-Services Intelligence learnt of the development when it intercepted Indian Army communications, a retired general says in his new book.
Britain should have banned all terrorist goups, the Pakistan president said.
Signalling that it was ready for a showdown with President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's new government has said that the 'extra-constitutional steps' taken by him during emergency rule last year are not part of the Constitution, as Parliament is yet to endorse them. Naek said the coalition government led by the Pakistan People's Party is committed to reinstating the judges sacked by Musharraf, including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir on issues like Musharraf's compulsions in resorting to this extreme measure, conducting elections and restoring democracy in Pakistan, whether its nuclear weapons are in danger of falling into extremists' hands and what the ramifications for India would be.
The US Congressman has, however, praised Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali for his "encouraging statements" and urged him to forge good relations with India.\n\n
Top Pakistani lawyer and a known Musharraf critic, Aitzaz Ahsan, freed after four months of detention, on Monday said he would file an FIR against the President for "illegally detaining" deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Ahsan, who is president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a former minister, told a news conference that the FIR will be filed under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code that mainly deal with illegal detention.
"We are trying to bring peace and harmony to our relations with India. This is the time for conflict resolution," Musharraf, who is on a three-day visit to Australia, said.
The Bush administration has said it continues to support embattled President Pervez Musharraf, whose allies were routed in Pakistan's general election, while maintaining that Washington has no role in the formation of a new government in Islamabad.
The Kashmir issue can be solved in two weeks if leaders of both India and Pakistan display the political will, President Pervez Musharraf said in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Quoting a senior PML-Q official, the report said, "He's been sulking...He's retreated into a mental bunker, which is not healthy. He thinks everyone is out to get him and only listens to a small circle. It's a dangerous mindset to be in at this point in time. He could decide to hit back."
"It is in our best interest for there to be some stability. Right now Musharraf, despite some of the concerns we have about him, represents at least some level of security, more so than if he were ousted immediately," former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said.
A former aide-de-camp of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in his residence at Islamabad, his family has said. The body of Major (retired) Syed Tanveer Ali was found in his flat in Sector F-11 in the heart of Islamabad on Thursday. He retired from the army in 2004. Authorities of a private hospital informed the police that they had received Ali's body with a bullet injury to the head.
The lawyer who successfully defended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaurdhry has warned that a turmoil will break out the moment the General files his nomination for the forthcoming election.
'The basic issue is to create and develop understanding and we are not going to discuss solutions for substantive issues,' the Pakistani president said.
Kiyani is a non-controversial officer, who had in the past not come to notice for any dubious association with the Taliban or Al Qaeda or any of Pakistan's fundamentalist organisations.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he was encouraged to join the Army by his mother as he was not good at academics and that he often felt "lonely" during his eight-year reign. Musharraf, who has maintained his iron grip on Pakistan since 1999 after deposing the then premier Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup, said he was not very good at studies unlike his brothers and therefore his mother Zarreen Begum "the most important person in his life" encouraged him to
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has won British and American support for her efforts to enter into a power-sharing 'deal' with President Pervez Musharraf before the forthcoming general elections.
Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has admitted that he allowed the United States to carry out drone surveillance inside the country when he was in power, but had not permitted them to launch the controversial missile strikes to take out militants.
The president has categorically and repeatedly stated that the government was functioning successfully and noticeable progress had been achieved on many fronts, an official statement issued in Islamabad on Sunday said.
"We will hold elections in a fair and transparent manner," said Pervez Musharraf.
With the murder of Benazir Bhutto just days before the elections, and with the government coming up with new stories everyday about her death, the report says that Musharaff's position is probably now more insecure and he might not remain in power by the end of the year.
Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in US, Joseph Biden, has said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is "indirectly complicit" in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in view of the kind of protection that was needed for her was never provided.
The All Pakistan Muslim League has served a legal notice of $5 million to a British newspaper over allegations it levelled against the political party and its head, former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
President General Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday handed over charge of the Pakistan army to General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani.
Pakistan on Friday expressed its satisfaction over a United Nations panel's report on the killing of former premier Benazir Bhutto, saying it had vindicated its stand that former dictator-turned-president Pervez Musharraf's regime was responsible for her assassination in 2007.
Claiming that people of Pakistan need a viable alternative in this hour of crisis, former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has said that he is "prepared to take risk" of his life to return back home from a self-imposed exile.
Tuesday's violent clashes unfolded a day after the severe snub the Pakistan Supreme Court gave to the Musharraf establishment.
