The crucial talks between the top leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition ended inconclusively on Friday, with Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari seeking more time from his ally Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif, to consider the modalities for reinstatement of the deposed judges. Sharif said that his party remained committed to the restoration of the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf, by May 12. Zardari did not talk to the media.
Even as the talks between leaders of Pakistan's coalition government on restoration of deposed judges remain inconclusive, co-chairman of Pakistan People's Party Asif Ali Zardari has said the reinstatement would be brought about through a constitutional package. The PPP calls for reinstatement of judges through a constitutional package, but the PML-N insists that they should be restored through a parliamentary resolution, as initially agreed by the two parties.
India should share any concrete evidence of Pakistani links to the Mumbai terror attacks so that the two countries can resolve the issue with seriousness, opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday.India has not blamed Pakistan government for the attacks in Mumbai, Sharif told reporters after a meeting in Islamabad with Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal.
Sharif briefed Patterson about his party's agenda, including the restoration of the pre-emergency status of the judiciary, supremacy of the Parliament and strengthening of democracy, during the meeting at the Frontier House in Islamabad. Patterson congratulated Sharif on the victory of his party in the February 18 general election. The PML-N is set to form a coalition government with the Pakistan People's Party, which emerged the largest group in the polls.
Pakistan's two main Opposition parties stepped up efforts on Friday to identify a consensus candidate for Prime Minister and hammer out a power-sharing formula after the former rivals agreed to form a coalition government.
Ending the suspense on government formation in Pakistan, the two main opposition parties on Thursday announced they would form a new ruling coalition, but did not name any prime ministerial candidate.
The United States has advised former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to adopt a lenient view on the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf and let him determine his own future.The US advice came as Assistant Secretary of state Richard Boucher met Sharif at the Raiwind farm house near Lahore on Tuesday.He said the US should let Pakistan settle its issues by itself. He added if the US could not facilitate Pakistan, it should not interfere in its internal affairs.
With Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif sharpening his rhetoric against Pervez Musharraf, the ruling Pakistan People's Party said that it was waiting for an opportune moment to offer an exit to the embattled President."Pakistan People's Party will be the one that sends President Pervez Musharraf home," its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday night. Zardari's comments came in the wake of a demand by his Sharif for Musharraf to be made accountable for actions.
The stage is set for talks between Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League - N chief Nawaz Sharif on a draft parliamentary resolution for reinstating judges, sacked last year by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, with the arrival of the Pakistan People's Party co-chairman in London on Thursday. Besides the question of judges' restoration, the two leaders will also review national and political developments.
An overwhelming majority of Pakistanis believe their country is moving in the wrong direction and 59 per cent would rather have Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif as president instead of Asif Ali Zardari, a survey has said. Eighty-eight per cent of the respondents in the poll conducted by United States-based International Republican Institute said Pakistan is moving in the wrong direction, while 73 per cent said the economic situation had worsened in the past year.
Suspense over Pakistan's next prime minister continued with the Pakistan People's Party, which will head a planned coalition government, on Thursday delaying a decision on its nominee amid differences over the frontrunner Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
Some elements in an intelligence agency were using their links in the PPP and the media to establish that Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan is trying to become a candidate for the position of either the prime minister or the president through the PML-N. But their efforts to create a rift between the two opposition parties, which are planning to form a coalition government, failed.
A Pakistan Muslim League-N candidate for Pakistan's general election was shot dead and nine other party workers were injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen in Lahore on Monday.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N chief said his party will not accept any national unity government headed by Musharraf.
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Sunday filed her nomination for the January 8 general elections while her arch rival and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif, who returned from seven years in exile, will file his papers on Monday.
Benazir said an interim government must be set up by taking all parties into confidence. The former prime minister said the government had discussed setting up an interim political arrangement with her, but the issue of the caretaker prime minister was yet to be discussed, the Daily Times reported.
Pakistan's ruling PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is expected to meet his rival, Pakistan Muslim League-N president and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz, in London to discuss modalities for the latter's return to the country ahead of the general election. Hussain is currently in London for a medical check-up but sources in his Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid party said he had been tasked with finalising the details for Shahbaz's return to Pakistan.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N on Wednesday said that it would finalise its response, to a constitutional reforms package drawn up by its ally Pakistan People's Party to clip the sweeping powers of President Pervez Musharraf, by Thursday.A committee formed by Sharif to examine the package met for the second time in the day and its chairman Raja Zafrul Haq said the panel had completed reviewing two-thirds of the contents of the package.
Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday hinted that his Pakistan Muslim League- N party may not be averse to an alliance with Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party in the forthcoming general elections. Sharif said that the PML-N and the PPP can explore the possibility of a coalition government after the elections. the PML-N had decided to boycott elections to express solidarity with the PPP following Bhutto's assassination. But it reversed the decision later.
sharif's deportation was one of the rare occasion when Saudi Arabia and the royal family had been openly criticised, when traditionally they have been accorded great respect, bordering sometimes on reverence.
The prime minister needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition's bid to topple him.
Sharif was sent on exile to Jeddah after he was sentenced for life by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan for preventing the plane of General Pervez Musharraf from landing before the military coup of October 1999.
"The way he (Pakistan MP) is saying that 'pair kaanp rahe the' (his legs were trembling). It is because the military posture was very offensive... God forbid if there are military misadventure on 27th and hit some of our military installations, we were in a position to wipe out their forward brigades. They know what is our capability," he said.
Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif is "not too happy" with the way India handled his visit to New Delhi to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the prime minister, a media report claimed on Friday quoting a unnamed leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi in Delhi, ending two-day suspense over his decision amid reports that there was stiff opposition from hardliners in the establishment.
Former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has said he would prefer going to jail rather than appear before Pakistan's anti-corruption watchdog that is investigating graft charges against him.
India on Wednesday raised its concerns over millions of rupees allocated by Pakistan's Punjab province government to Jamat-ud-Dawa-led by Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafeez Saeed, saying New Delhi would "carefully" analyse the matter before taking it up with Islamabad.
Being a son of Nehru's dentist is not the only connection that Alvi has with India. He is yet another president whose family migrated to Pakistan from India after partition. His predecessors Mamnoon Hussain's family came from Agra and Pervez Musharraf's parents migrated from New Delhi.
One of the two anti-government protest leaders in Pakistan on Saturday said that he has suspended talks with the Pakistan Muslim League-N government following a crackdown in Islamabad on demonstrators demanding ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Thousands of anti-government protesters led by opposition leader Imran Khan on Saturday reached Islamabad with an aim of ousting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The government of Pakistan's Punjab province has justified its allocation of over Rs 61 million to the largest centre of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, saying the funds are needed to continue the services being provided to people by the facility.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting with military and civilian officials to review tensions with India after the killing of five Indian soldiers along the LoC.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday decided to meet opposition leader Imran Khan in an effort to end the anti-government protests seeking his ouster, as Pakistan's powerful military called for calm and asked all stakeholders to resolve the impasse through meaningful talks.
Britain's first Muslim MP, Mohammed Sarwar, has renounced his British citizenship to become the governor of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province.
In India, Sartaj Azizis respected as a man of grace, wit and patience. He is a wizened soldier of many diplomatic battles between the two neighbouring nations
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sees his victory in Pakistan's election as a mandate for peace with India, saying an arms race between the two countries must end and they should settle their dispute over Kashmir.
Facing his toughest test since becoming Pakistan's prime minister, a defiant Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday brushed aside the demand of protesters asking him to quit saying the country has survived "difficult times" and the current political crisis too shall pass.
'All the anti-India groups like LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul Mujahideen have been activated with terrorist camps and launching pads in place.'
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