Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has promised to lift the emergency on December 15, a day earlier than he had previously announced, and claimed the upcoming general elections in the country would be "absolutely" free and fair.
Dr Shirin M Mazari, an Islamabad-based analyst, speaks of terrorism and violence in Pakistan and what Pervez Musharraf's presidency has done for the country.
One of the advisors did not rule out the possibility of a new election after six months.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday filed his nomination papers for the October 6 presidential polls, formally launching his bid for another five-year term in the face of legal challenges and stiff protests by the opposition parties.
As Musharraf finalised his plans for re-election, a senior minister said the general will be deemed to have been elected unopposed for another term if the opposition parties did not put up any candidate against him
Emphasising that India and Pakistan need to make rapid progress to resolve that Kashmir issue, Musharraf hoped that the Indian leadership will show sincerity, flexibility and courage to achieve the objective.
President Pervez Musharraf has admitted that he's negotiating with all political outfits in Pakistan, including the parties of former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
As for the decision of who fills what post, that's going to be up to the Pakistani government and ultimately the people to decide, the US said.
Musharraf is widely believed to have chosen former ISI chief Lt Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani as his successor to head the Army, says Newsweek in its upcoming issue.
Musharraf and Bhutto had earlier met on July 27 in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, according to the Pakistani government.
The former prime minister also expressed apprehension of President Musharraf continuing in office and still wearing his uniform as Chief of the Armed Forces.
The ordinance, issued late in the night, gives a more structured character to the NCA, which was originally set up in February 2000 to address concerns about the safety of the nuclear arsenal. Under the original set-up, the chief of the NCA was the head of the government or the Prime Minister. The ordinance, issued by Musharraf, names the President as the chairman of the NCA and the prime minister as the deputy chairman.
The deposed premier, who was ousted in a military coup in 1999, said that after returning to the country on September 10, he would lead his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the campaign
The first on the list is Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali politician from then East Pakistan who served as the fifth prime minister. He was arrested in January 1962 and put in jail on bogus charges of "anti-state activities". His actual crime was his refusal to support military ruler General Ayub Khan.
The generals are worried about Washington's warm overtures to India and fear that soon they will be abandoned again, the magazine's international editor Fareed Zakaria said in the article.
Aides of President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto will be holding a final round of talks in the United Arab Emirates from Tuesday to "devise a strategy for the coming general election," a media report said. The talks were earlier scheduled after Eid-ul-Fitr, but after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML-N president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain ruled out any truck with the PPP for the polls, the meetings were urgently arranged.
Pak Army officers write to Musharraf on the sacking of CJ issue.
