Thaindian News

By Muhammad Najeeb and Dipankar De Sarkar Islamabad/London, May 10 (IANS) The main constituents of Pakistan's fragile ruling alliance were at loggerheads again Saturday - a day after seven hours of London talks failed to break a deadlock on whether to reinstate judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan Peoples Party ... Read more...

By Dipankar De Sarkar London, May 10 (IANS) The two leaders of Pakistan's ruling alliance have failed to reach agreement on the important issue of reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf, agreeing to disagree after seven hours of inconclusive talks here. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari ... Read more...

Karachi, May 9 (ANI): Former Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal was released from a jail in Karachi on Friday. Mengal made his way out of a hospital in the company of Sindh Interior Minister Zulifiqar Mirza, who carried his release order into the premises. Mengal was undergoing medical treatment. Akhtar ... Read more...

DPA Islamabad, May 9 (DPA) Pakistan's law minister Friday said the ruling coalition was unlikely to meet the new May 12 deadline for the restoration of judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf, bringing the fragile alliance on the verge of collapse. The two major coalition leaders, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz ... Read more...

Lahore, May 7 (ANI): The Sindh High Court is learnt to have disposed off the infamous Swiss Bank case in which PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his late wife Benazir Bhutto were accused of stashing 50 million dollars in Swiss bank accounts. With this, all the court cases ... Read more...

By Muhammad Najeeb Islamabad, May 6 (IANS) The Sindh High Court Tuesday dropped all corruption and criminal cases against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief Asif Ali Zardari, once nicknamed Mr.Ten Percent for his alleged extortion and now considered amongst the country's most influential persons. Zardari, elected co-chair of the PPP along ... Read more...

By Sudeshna Sarkar Kathmandu, May 4 (IANS) After Indira Gandhi in India, Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and Chandrika Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka, another daughter has made her debut in South Asia's political skies: Renu Dahal, daughter of Nepal's Maoist leader Prachanda. Asked how she felt after her ... Read more...

Islamabad, May 3 (IANS) A new book reveals that Pakistan planned its costly Kargil military operation, which almost triggered a major war with India, years before it actually happened in the summer of 1999. The book, "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army and the Wars Within", comes up with admissions by ... Read more...

Washington, May 2 (ANI): Pakistans new coalition government is likely to change its officially appointed lobbyists in the United States. Several lobbying contracts signed during the previous caretaker regime are coming to end. The change is expected because a new administration almost always changes its representatives in Washington, a Congressional ... Read more...

New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) Pakistani Information and Broadcasting Minister Sherry Rehman will attend the funeral of veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, which is slated to take place Friday morning. This will be the first India visit of a Pakistani minister from the new government that took over after the elections ... Read more...

Islamabad, May 1 (ANI): Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)s co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has defended his party's demand for a UN probe into Benazir Bhutto's assassination, suspecting that some external forces interested in the balkanisation of Pakistan, were involved in the killing. His statement during a private TV programme provides impetus ... Read more...

Islamabad, April 29 (IANS) Pakistan's ruling party chief Asif Ali Zardari has said people wanted him to resolve the Kashmir issue, which had been pending for 60 years, "within days". "Now, people want me to resolve the Kashmir issue within days - which has not been resolved for the last ... Read more...

Islamabad, April 29 (IANS) A pre-election deal brokered between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto continues to haunt her widower Asif Ali Zardari, co-chair of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that heads the ruling coalition, who finds his hands tied because of the pact. Zardari ... Read more...

DPA Peshawar, April 28 (DPA) Pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan Monday said they would call off their peace talks with the government and threatened to resume attacks on security forces. "There was one important point in the peace negotiations which we could not resolve and that was ... Read more...

Quetta, Apr 28 (ANI): The nationalist parties of Balochistan have reportedly refused to attend the all-parties conference (APC) which PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari has called to address Balochistans grievances. Citing a reason for the same, they said that they have lost their faith in conferences and committees. Like President ... Read more...

(Lead) By Muhammad Najeeb Islamabad, April 28 (IANS) The two major partners in Pakistan's coalition government are meeting in Dubai to finalise the restoration of the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf when he imposed emergency Nov 3 last year. Asif Ali Zardari, chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that leads ... Read more...

Lahore, Apr 28 (ANI): Pakistan Law Minister Farooq Naek has said that there would be no confrontation between the political forces and the Presidency over the judges restoration issue. He urged upon the lawyers and masses to show patience on the judges issue, saying that the governments decision on this ... Read more...

Islamabad, April 28 (IANS) Is Asif Ali Zardari, co-chair of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that leads the country's ruling coalition, preparing to don the prime minister's mantle? It would seem so from a missive he has delivered to the members of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani's cabinet telling them ... Read more...

London , Apr.27 (ANI): Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been posthumously awarded the prestigious Tipperary International Peace Award 2007 in an impressive ceremony in the southwestern Irish town of Tipperary . Bhuttos long-time associate Bashir Riaz received the award on behalf of her family from Ireland s Minister ... Read more...

Islamabad, April 27 (IANS) Riaz Mohammad Khan was unceremoniously removed as Pakistan's foreign secretary due to his strong opposition to a UN probe into former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, a media report Sunday said. Abdul Moiz Bokhari, an acting special secretary at the foreign office, was Saturday named the ... Read more...

Islamabad , Apr.27 (ANI): The Pakistan Government has sacked Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan, reportedly over his strong opposition to the PPP-led Governments plan to approach the United Nations for an independent international investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. It what has come as a ... Read more...

New York, April 25 (IANS) Pakistan is close to a pact to end fighting with militant tribes in its border area along Afghanistan where Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud is accused of orchestrating most of the suicide bombings in recent months including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The draft of a ... Read more...

Islamabad, April 25 (IANS) Pakistan has begun peace talks with tribal leaders in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan, and with Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud who is widely believed to be the mastermind behind the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. "We will give the nation good ... Read more...

New York, Apr 25 (ANI): One of the first owners of a penthouse apartment in New Yorks Manhattan area has said that former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto died because she had bought a jinxed apartment, which has a dark and mysterious history, in as much as who ever bought ... Read more...

Islamabad, Apr 25 (ANI): In what would come as a major reprieve for Sarabjit Singh, the Indian national lodged in Lahores Kot Lakhpat jail for being involved in terror activities, the new Pakistan government is actively considering a proposal to convert the capital punishment into life imprisonment. A summary prepared ... Read more...

DPA Kabul, April 24 (DPA) Afghan army forces clashed with Taliban militants in separate areas of the country, killing and wounding more than 17 insurgents, including a rebel commander, the army said Thursday. Taliban militants attacked Afghan army outposts in the Nawa Pass area in eastern Kunar province with heavy artillery ... Read more...

Islamabad, Apr 24 (ANI): The Pakistan Government has welcomed the announcement made by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsood that he would shun terror activities. Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani's Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik said that the country would soon hear good news about strengthening of peace initiatives. ... Read more...

Xinhua Islamabad, April 24 (Xinhua) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay a brief visit to Pakistan April 28 for talks with the country's new leadership, foreign office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said Thursday. Sadiq told reporters during the weekly news briefing here that the Iranian president would hold talks with the new ... Read more...

DPA Islamabad, April 24 (DPA) Top leader of pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan has directed his comrades "to immediately cease their activities" as the government inches toward signing a peace accord with the rebels, media reports said Thursday. Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the country's umbrella militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), issued ... Read more...

Berlin, Apr 22 (ANI): The Berlin Council was moved by the German Social Democratic Partys parliamentary group today for naming a highway after Pakistans martyred leader Benazir Bhutto. The request petition was filed by the President of the Pak German Council for Culture, Riaz Gondal, the News quoted sources, as ... Read more...

DPA Islamabad, April 22 (DPA) A pro-Taliban militant leader who was freed as part of peace talks with militants in Pakistan's restive north-west valley of Swat renounced violence hours after his release from prison, media reports said on Tuesday. Maulana Sufi Mohammed, chief of the banned Movement for the Enforcement of ... Read more...

DPA Peshawar, April 21 (DPA) The Pakistani government Monday released the head of a banned Islamic organisation as part of its peace talks with the militants in restive northwest valley of Swat, officials said. Maulana Sufi Mohammed, chief of the banned Movement for the Enforcement of Mohammedan Law (TNSM), was released ... Read more...

DPA Islamabad, April 21 (DPA) British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Monday applauded the democratic transition in Pakistan and said his country backed Islamabad's bid for re-entry into the Commonwealth. Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth group of former British colonies in late November following the imposition of emergency rule by President ... Read more...

By Muhammad Najeeb Islamabad, April 21 (IANS) The Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday waived the minimum eligibility criteria that a candidate needed to be a graduate to contest the national and provincial parliaments, paving the way for Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), to contest ... Read more...

Islamabad, April 20 (IANS) The Election Commission's unexpected move to revise the by-election schedule "continues to be discussed in political circles as this is a unique instance in the commission's history", a media report Sunday said. Quoting sources in the commission, The News said: "Never before a decision taken regarding ... Read more...