MULTAN: A gang-rape victim who shunned custom and rose to global fame by speaking out about her case has defied another local taboo – she just got married. Mukhtar Mai is now the second wife of Nasir Abbas Gabol, a police officer who was assigned to protect her as her case gained notoriety. He said […]
WASHINGTON: A bipartisan group of 15 US congressmen warned the US administration on Wednesday that increased US military activities in Pakistan would have dangerous consequences for the entire region. In a signed letter to President Barak Obama, the lawmakers also opposed US drone attacks in Pakistan, saying that it’s the continuation of the Bush administration’s […]
Islamabad, Pakistan — On a day of delirious public celebrations over Pakistan’s popular chief justice getting his job back, President Asif Ali Zardari stayed conspicuously out of sight. The 52-year-old president, whose popularity had been flagging even before Pakistan’s latest political crisis, was like an unwelcome guest Monday at a raucous nationwide party, pilloried for […]
WASHINGTON — President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan. According to senior administration officials, two of the high-level reports […]
WASHINGTON: The US State Department has said that Washington is not going to tell Pakistani politicians how to end the governor’s rule in Punjab or to revoke the disqualification order against the Sharif brothers. ‘Well, look, that’s the decision that’s going to be left to Pakistani authorities. That’s not an issue for the United […]
WHAT prompted the government’s change of heart at the eleventh hour that led to the announcement about the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry? Whatever other factors may have been at play, we also know that America, Britain and the Pakistan Army were active behind the scenes. But did anyone note that in the days […]
The “victory” celebration after the calling off of the Long March was still going on when a suicide-bomber struck at the Pirwadhai bus station in Rawalpindi, killing 14 people. The immediate speculation was that the suicide bomber was despatched to hit the Long March itself since it was to pass near where the terrorist finally […]
WASHINGTON: The United States not only used the threat of an aid cut to defuse a potentially explosive situation in Pakistan but also had doubts about the Zardari government’s ability to fight terrorism, US officials and lawmakers said on Tuesday. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds US foreign aid […]
New trouble looming over Chinese-Australian mining deal Australian politicians called for an inquiry into the country’s foreign investment laws as state-owned Aluminium Corporation of China is pursuing a $19.5 billion purchase of Rio Tinto’s mining assets in Australia. The Chinalco-Rio Tinto deal has caused significant suspicion among Australian officials that there are higher political motives […]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The promised reinstatement of Pakistan’s chief justice defused a protest movement threatening the U.S.-allied government, but it could still spell trouble for the country’s struggling president. The army is said to have directed President Asif Ali Zardari to defuse the developing showdown with opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and lawyers leading a column […]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — It was a signal moment in Pakistan’s political development: A huge demonstration forced the restoration of a dismissed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a symbol of democracy and the rule of law. The army did not stage a coup, but insisted that the government accept a compromise. The deal between President Asif […]
The preamble to the Constitution of Pakistan binds the state ‘to exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives’ who, in turn, are bound to fully observe ‘the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam’. The constitution is, thus, violated whenever martial law is imposed, which indeed it […]
China’s international investment losses exceed $80 billion China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the country’s exclusive manager of almost $2 trillion foreign exchange reserves, has lost more than $80 billion in its diversification into global equities. Details of SAFE’s holdings are only disclosed to the top Chinese leadership, a fact that makes exact estimates […]
Musadiq Sanwal reports live from Islamabad as the second lawyers’ Long March arrives in the capital. Meanwhile Muhammad Badar Alam, Bureau Chief of the Herald, provides the latest news from Lahore. While lawyers and political activists of the PML-N march on, they will have updates from the protests, the word on the street, and stories […]
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif is fanning provincialism in the country and only the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is an insignia of federation, Benazir Income Support Programme Chairwoman Farzana Raja said on Saturday. Talking to reporters, she said former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had started Rs 2 roti scheme in the […]
