General Sharif will meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other civil as well as military leaders during the day-long trip.
Pakistan's powerful army and the its espionage agency Inter Services Intelligence are using "terrorist brinkmanship" to threaten India and undermine their own Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to secure domestic gains against their civilian leaders, a former CIA analyst has said.
This will be the fifth time that Prime Minister Sharif will pick the top commander of the country's nearly 550,000 ground troops.
The banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir has in the last one decade made three attempts to penetrate the Pakistani military. Its latest bid resulted in the conviction of Brigadier Ali Khan and four other army officers for links with the outfit. On August 3, a military court convicted Khan and majors Sohail Akbar, Jawad Baseer, Inayat Aziz and Iftikhar for having links with the HuT and gave them prison terms ranging from five years to 18 months
Describing the Pakistani Army's offensive against the Taliban and other extremist groups as "terrific", US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has assured Islamabad that Washington would keep supporting the troubled nation in future also.
The Pakistan army will remain an 'India-centric' institution till the water row between the two countries and the Kashmir dispute is resolved, said General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.Kayani added that the Pakistan army could not afford to let its guard down against India given the history of unresolved issues between the two countries and the latter's military capability. He defended his tough stance saying all war preparations of India seemed to be 'Pakistan-specific'.
A march against US drone strikes in Pakistan led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan was stopped by the army on the edge of the nation's lawless tribal belt due to fears of possible militant attacks on the rallyists, which also included American anti-war activists.
The Pakistani military on Saturday dismissed as "absurd and baseless" a British newspaper's report that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was behind a defamation campaign against Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Pakistan People's Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Ground forces of paramilitary Frontier Corps spearheaded the assault to strike the militants of the banned Lashkar-e-Islam group, a Taliban ally in the restive Bara region through which passes the main highway to Afghan capital Kabul
In continuing wave of violence in northwest Pakistan, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle, packed with 50 kg of explosives, when he was flagged at a checkpoint at Pishtakhara Chowk, the main entry point to Peshawar from the troubled Khyber tribal region.
Pakistani forces fought pitched battles with Taliban fighters in their bid to wrest their hub of Sararogha in South Waziristan killing 34 militants to raise the terrorist death toll to 227, but lost 11 soldiers as insurgents opened new fronts in the lawless region.
Civilian government informs military of growing isolation of Pakistan, seeks consensus on several key actions.
The Pakistan army killed at least 120 suspected terrorists in the North Waziristan tribal region during the Zarb-e-Azb operation.
In an operation in this capital of Punjab province, police picked up 40 people, including a key suspect Luqman, who was caught with an explosive jacket, police said. Most of the suspects arrested here belong to banned militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Siphah-e-Sahaba, Sipah-e-Muhammad and Jaish-e-Mohammad, all Punjabi militant groups.
Hours after a suspected Taliban suicide bomber detonated his vehicle in Peshawar killing 49 people, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said the government had no option but to strike back on the militant stronghold of south Wazirstan."We have no other option but to carry out an operation in south Wazirstan," the interior minister told a private television channel after the attack.
The Pakistan army is running the foreign policy of the country and dictating vital policy decisions as it continued to be in power in the country, Asma Jahangir, the chief of Pakistan's top rights watchdog, has said.
Pakistan's most wanted terrorist Baitullah Mehsud's death may actually embolden the Pakistanis as it marks a weakening of those Taliban factions that oppose Islamabad, a leading United States private intelligence agency has said. "With more confidence in its influence over the remaining Taliban elements, Pakistan could be even less willing to sell out its Taliban assets in Afghanistan," the Stratfor said.
Pakistan's powerful army 'intends to stay neutral', on the Supreme Court's decision to ask former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to explain why he imposed emergency rule nearly two years ago and sacked over 60 judges, according to a media report on Thursday. A bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was among the 60 judges sacked by Musharraf, had on Wednesday issued a notice to the former president.The move sparked speculation in political circles.
In an interview to CBS Face the Nation, Chairman of America's Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said Pakistan Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is focused on both -- the threat from India and that from internal insurgency.
The three most powerful elements of Pakistani politics, President Asif Ali Zardari, opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and the Army are "coming together" to fight the "common enemy" of terrorism, the top United States envoy to the Pak-Afghan region has said.
This potential jihadist takeover of a nuclear-armed Pakistan poses India with a serious conundrum.
Lieutenant General K T Parnaik, the third highest ranking officer in the Indian Army, is responsible for guarding 1,896 kilometres of India's border with Pakistan and China. He spoke to Rediff.com in an exclusive and fascinating interview.
Pakistan Army on Wednesday withdrew a tweet that had rattled the civilian government over a media report about a rift between them over combating militancy in the country.
The Inter Services Public Relations, in a brief statement, said the Indian drone was brought down near the Line of Control in Bhimber area of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
Seven militants were killed and two others injured when Pakistani security forces used gunship helicopters and artillery to target Taliban positions near Kohat town in the troubled North West Frontier Province today.
A newly formed task force set up by seven leading Indian-American groups has demanded that the focus of the United States military aid to Islamabad should be on resources needed to fight terrorists rather than enhancing the capacity of Pakistani forces.
The Pakistan Army on Wednesday changed the commander of a Rawalpindi-based unit that has traditionally played a vital role in military coups as army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani gathered his key aides to assess an escalation in tensions with the civilian government.
Former Pakistan Army officers and those from the powerful ISI helped train the attackers who targeted Mumbai last week killing over 180 people, a media report said today quoting a former Pentagon official.
Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Friday dismissed speculation of a military takeover as "misleading", saying they are being used as a "bogey" to divert the focus from "real issues".
Hours after Pakistan President Asif Ali Zaradri suddenly returned home in the thick of brewing standoff over the memogate affair, the army sought to dispel impression that a telephonic conversation between him and its powerful chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had anything to do with the "some events" in last 72 hours.
The Pakistan army, which is alleged to have huge business interests, "must acquire" a television channel for dissemination of propaganda to counter the growing penetration of Indian TV and news channels in the country, a senior army officer has suggested.
Amir Mir reports from Islamabad that the fall from grace for Pakistan's influential ambassador to Washington Hussain Haqqani on charge of seeking the Americans' help against the mighty military establishment of his own country to ward off a possible coup, is in fact the outcome of a constant civil-military tussle which has been going on since April 2008 when a khaki-turned diplomat Maj Gen (retd) Mahmood Ahmed Durrani was replaced with Haqqani as ambassador to the US.
"An M-17 helicopter of the Pakistan Army Aviation met an accident last night near Astore district of the Northern Area," the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate said in a statement.
The 15-day long Keran anti-infiltration operation has been called off, according to a top Indian Army officer.
Violating the ceasefire again, Pakistan army fired at six Indian forward posts along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, drawing retaliation from Indian troops.
In a fresh ceasefire violation, Pakistani troops on Wednesday opened unprovoked firing on five Indian forward posts along the LoC in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting retaliation from Indian forces.
For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government has established its writ in the scenic Tirah Valley in the troubled Khyber agency that had become a haven for Taliban militants.
A day after the United States moved to suspend $800 million military aid to it, Pakistan Army on Monday claimed that it would continue to conduct operations without American assistance, even while saying it had no official intimation of Washington's decision.
Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Thursday slammed Pakistan for giving "candid support" to terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiyba as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace.