An expected stormy run in Asia for the Beijing Olympic flame on Monday prompted Pakistan to promise security worthy of a head of state to the torch, as it made a last-minute change in the route for the relay marred by anti-China protests. The Olympic torch will arrive in Islamabad early on April 16 from Muscat, and it will be taken to New Delhi later the same day.
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.
Former Pakistani minister Sher Afghan Niazi was beaten up by a large group of lawyers who detained him for nearly five hours in a hotel in Lahore, prompting a top advocate leading the legal fraternity's campaign against President Pervez Musharraf to quit his post.
Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan, under house arrest for the past four years, on Tuesday claimed he was being "persecuted for the sake of one man", an apparent reference to President Pervez Musharraf. Khan, who had confessed in 2004 to passing on nuclear technology and equipment to North Korea, Iran and Libya, said he wanted to be free to meet his relatives and to travel within the country.
F Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in defence secretary's office, said, "yet, the US reportedly cannot debrief Khan to do a threat assessment on the nuclear threat."
"I have expressed my desire to visit Pakistan as soon as the new government is in place and I am waiting for that," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told media persons in Washington on Tuesday. "I hope the new government will pick up the thread from where it was left by President Pervez Musharraf and we will continue this exercise," he added.
Clad in a black traditional sherwani, Gillani, the country's 25th prime minister and the first premier from the Pakistan People's Party who is not a member of the Bhutto family, was administered the oath by Musharraf in the central hall of the Aiwan-e-Sadr or presidency in Islamabad. The ceremony was delayed by almost an hour as Gillani had gone to Karachi on Monday to attend the wedding of his son and had to rush back to the federal capital on Tuesday.
India had asserted that it was a 'sovereign' decision to be taken by it based on security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and could not be 'dictated by any foreign government.'
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
Dalbir Kaur, sister of Indian prisoner in Pakistan Sarabjit Singh, is hopeful that Pakistan's Human Rights minister Ansar Burney will bring some good news for her and her family members after his meeting with President Pervez Musharraf. Burney had promised Dalbir Kaur that he would take up the matter Musharraf soon after a daily said Sarabjit would be hanged to death on April 1. He had been dubbed a RAW agent and sentenced to death.
The mercy petition was rejected by the President after 'thorough consideration' as the allegations against him 'were proved and he was awarded capital punishment by court', official sources said. Sarabjit was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed about 14 people. His family denies he was a spy as claimed by Pakistan and insists he accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory.
"I have proposed demilitarization as a ... final resolution. Demilitarise Kashmir, give self governance to people of Kashmir with a joint management arrangement on top. This is an idea I am proposing."
India should consider Musharraf proposals: Baig
New Zealand was the first nation to pass a legislation banning nuclear arms and nuclear-powered vessels from its territorial waters.
"Pakistan and India, I think, have come to a stage where we have realised that a military solution is no longer the answer. Therefore, we are moving towards peace."
Reversing its earlier stand in an apparent bid to provide stability, Nawaz Sharif's PML(N) on Sunday decided to join the PPP-led coalition government and the two parties agreed to re-instate all the judges sacked by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf within a month of assuming power. The long-time foes clinched a power-sharing deal etching the contours of the new government at a one-to-one meeting between PPP chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif.
Opposition parties observed a Black Day on Sunday, blaming the government for the violence that turned the city's streets into a battlezone.
Kashmir Singh will be released from Lahore's Central Jail and taken by road to the Wagah border by Pakistan's caretaker human rights minister Ansar Burney, where he will be reunited with families and well-wishers.
Pakistani Senators have questioned President Pervez Musharraf's fat hotel bill of Rs 63 lakh during his recent three-day visit to Britain, saying it caused a deep hole for the state exchequer.
He said time had come to accept that there were militant training camps in Pakistan and 'Azad Kashmir' in the past, which were boldly closed down by President Pervez Musharraf.
Aaj went off the air as it was beaming the programme Bolta Pakistan hosted by Nusrat Javed. Authorities had briefly ordered Aaj off cable networks on February 6 when Javed had appeared on another show. Javed's show was taken off the air when President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule in 2007.
Disapproving of US' reliance on President Pervez Musharraf in the war against terror, presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who raised a storm by suggesting unilateral action against Al Qaeda in Pakistan, has vowed to go after the terror network there.
The author says there was massive rigging in Pakistan polls despite a Musharraf loss
Musharraf observed that military solution was not an answer to resolve the Kashmir issue as the option of using force to settle bilateral disputes between Pakistan and India never worked in the past.
One of India's most seasoned diplomats on Pakistan, who has had extensive and deep interaction with the Pakistani elite, told rediff.com, "Americans are likely to encourage a deal between the PPP and Musharraf. But we will have to wait and watch."
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he is not planning to resign or retire despite his allies suffering a crushing defeat in the general election and asserted that he intends to stay in office to guide the democratic transition in the country.
Though the fear of violence loomed large over the elections to the national and four provincial assemblies, the process was largely peaceful in most parts of the country.
Chandio Munir Ahmad is an activist of All Pakistan Trade Union Organisation. He has been a grassroots' worker for many years. He, like the overwhelming number of grassroots activists in Pakistan, is upset with the Indian government for giving tacit support to President Musharraf's regime and America's gameplan in the region.
People of Pakistan will not accept a 'rigged victory' for the pro-Musharraf parties.
The Feb 18 polls will be a crucial test for Pakistan, say experts
Musharraf, who suspended Chaudhry in March for alleged misconduct and misuse of power, said he did nothing wrong and that he was a great supporter of an independent judiciary.
The channel was restored to cable networks early on Thursday morning. This was the second time Aaj was taken off the air, the first being after Musharraf proclaimed emergency in November 2007.
Koizumi, who arrived in Islamabad from New Delhi on a two-day visit, held two-hour-long one-to-one meeting with Musharraf during which a host of issues, including Pakistan's commitment to the India-Pak peace process, figured.
The issues of nuclear proliferation and resumption of development assistance to Islamabad will figure during talks between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Asked if he would agree to a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, Zardari told a magazine: "It's too early and our wounds are too deep to think of having any working relationship with the ruling party or President Pervez Musharraf."
Addressing senior Indian editors at the end of his three-day visit, Musharraf said agreements mean nothing in different environment and different leadership.
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