News & Updates

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan and India had two exploratory meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Thursday but discussed issues which did not focus on bilateral relations. Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s National Security and Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz came face to face at the Saarc and Commonwealth foreign ministers’ meetings, raising hopes that the two seasoned politicians could use these opportunities for reducing tensions between their nations. They met as planned, and also had “a brief chit-chat” at the Commonwealth meeting, but did not hold formal talks. Diplomatic observers at the United Nations, however, see even this minor gesture as “a step in the right direction”, as one of them said. Know more: No plans for Nawaz-Modi meeting in New York: FO Foreign ministers from Saarc and Commonwealth nations meet every year on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss a mutually agreed agenda. This year’s ...

Prime Minister after buying 4 luxury armored cars, 2 BMWs and 2  #mercedes    #Benz    for himself has now cleared the purchase of a 2400cc Mercedes Benz E-250 for the  #Attorney     #General    of Pakistan Salman Butt, amid a  #political    #crisis    and a weak  #economic    growth. It must be noted that AGP Salman Butt is Mr Sharif's 'personal favourite'. He has represented him and his family in numerous corruption  #cases    and had him acquitted, latest of which concluded on 19th of September in which the Sharif family was acquitted in cases related to #money     #laundering    and  #Hudaibiya     #mills    case. >>Read More..  http://www.dawn.com/news/1134245/

Pakistani police arrested anti-government protesters in what activists said was an effort to crack down on weekslong sit-ins in the capital, while the government said police only apprehended suspects in a recent attack on state-run TV. The party of famed cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, who is leading one of two major protests demanding the government’s resignation, said a large number of party activists were detained in overnight raids beginning late Friday in Islamabad and elsewhere. He did not provide an exact number. “We are suspending talks with the government over these arrests,” party leader Jehanghir Tareen told a news conference. Anti-government cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who has been leading parallel demonstrations, said police had also detained his supporters, and that he too would be suspending talks over the arrests. Pakistani news channels had earlier showed several detained supporters of Qadri and Khan arriving at a local court in two prison vans. Khan’s p...

Signs of a possible solution to end the political crisis engulfing Pakistan looked bleak on saturday as anti-government protest leaders suspended talks with theNawaz Sharif government following a crackdown on demonstrators with opposition leader Imran Khan asserting that there was no room for negotiations any more. Pakistani police arrested several dozens of anti-government protestors and a court ordered that 100 opposition activists be sent to jail for holding illegal protests and other violations, triggering tense confrontation between demonstrators and police in the centre of the capital. Addressing his supporters on the completion of one month of protest, the fiery Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief announced to continue protests in front of Parliament till Sharif stepped down. “There is no room for negotiations any more. We will not leave till the premier resigns,” Khan said. He questioned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif if it is democratic to arrest young w...

Pakistan on Thursday denied any presence of supporters of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist group in the country and reiterated that it is against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. No government source has confirmed presence of the IS supporters in the country, said foreign ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam, reported Xinhua. Aslam was responding to questions concerning statements of some Pakistani clerics that alleged that recent attacks in Karachi showed that there have been some IS foot print in Pakistan. The attack on the Karachi Dockyard Sep 6 was the fourth big Taliban attack since the launch of the North Waziristan offensive. The military operation ‘Zarb-i-Azb’ was launched by the Pakistan army June 15 following a brazen militant attack on Karachi’s international airport and failure of peace talks between the government and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) negotiators. Aslam, however, evaded a direct reply to whether the US has sought Pakista...

Saudi Arabia among 10 Arab states which agree to join Barack Obama’s “international coalition” against Isil, after ministers hold talks with John Kerry By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent, and Peter Foster in Washington A coalition of 10 Arab states threw their support behind Barack Obama’s pledge to destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) movement in Iraq and Syria on Thursday. In a welcome boost to US plans for defeating the militant Islamist group, regional powers including Saudi Arabia and Jordan pledged to “do their share” in the battle. The announcement in Saudi Arabia was carefully choreographed, coming hours after the president told the American people that he would expand US air strikes against the militants, promising that Isil would ultimately be “vanquished from the Earth”. As Mr Obama marked the anniversary of the September 11 attacks with a moment of silence at the White House, the 10 regional allie...

Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf ruled out the possibility of anyone hurting Pakistan in the presence of the army which is fully capable of giving a befitting response to any adventurism. “The army will thwart all challenges to Pakistan’s territorial integrity,” he told the anchor of a private TV channel. Musharraf said no country, including the United States, should bother to interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs as Pakistanis knew how to solve their problems. But the former president conceded that there was a growing sense of unease over the current political stalemate. The crisis, according to Musharraf, should be resolved in a peaceful manner. He said the army was closely monitoring the whole situation. “Just like 1999, the people are once again looking at the army for help,” he said. He disagreed that it was the right time for re-election. “But it is the real democracy that people have come out of their homes,” he added. Criticising the former chief j...

ISLAMABAD: Former additional secretary of the Election commission of Pakistan Muhammad Afzal Khan has alleged that the general elections in May 2013 were rigged and that the people’s mandate was ‘stolen’. He said that former chief justices Iftikhar Chaudhry and Tassadduq Jillani were also involved in rigging the vote. Khan made the allegation during an interview on a private television channel, in which he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not win the elections in a free and fair manner. He said during the interview that the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim had shut his eyes on the rigging. The former additional secretary said that the Election Commission had been put under tremendous pressure during the alleged rigging. Khan said that judges were also involved in fixing the vote and that hearings of voter fraud was deliberately delayed. Reacting to the interview, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran khan commended Afzal Khan and...

Islamabad, Pakistan:  Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday said there was no justification for the protests as he has accepted all constitutional demands of protesters after opposition leader Imran Khan asked him to quit for 30 days to allow a probe into alleged rigging in the 2013 polls. “Instead of wasting their energies in protests, the demonstrators should play their role for the progress and development of the country,” Mr Sharif said in his first public comments after Mr Khan sought his resignation. There is no justification for continuing the protest after the government acceded to all the constitutional demands of the participants of the sit-ins, he said during a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Member of National Assembly Hamza Shahbaz. In his latest demand after the government outrightly rejected the proposal to end the crippling political deadlock, Mr Khan asked Mr Sharif to quit for 30 days to allow an independent probe into allege...

Make history, don’t become one Let’s forget about who is right wrong and who is wrong. No judgments, no prejudice against anyone. Let’s concentrate on only two questions: How can this situation be resolved amicably; and why it is necessary to do it as soon as possible? Are the demands legitimate? Is the modus operandi adopted for this purpose constitutional? Are there 7,000 people present at D Chowk or does the number of assembling people runs into hundreds of thousands in the evenings? These and such other questions seem to have lost their relevance at the moment. The only relevant concern of the people seems to be that we are at the brink and we must address the situation on ground as soon and as realistically as is possible. How can the Gordian knot be made loose? It’s simple through give and take by the opposing parties. Everyone is telling that. But what can that ‘give and take’ be? That’s easier said than explained. But even then, there are literally more than o...