Pakistan

Abu Dhabi, August 15: A large number of Pakistani nationals, businessmen and families along with their children gathered at the Pakistan embassy in Abu Dhabi on Friday morning and celebrated the 62nd Independence Day of 
their country.

Children in colourful attires and faces painted with the flag of Pakistan chanted slogans of Pakistan ‘zindabad’ (long live Pakistan), sang songs and enjoyed cakes and food served later.

There are around one million Pakistanis residing in the UAE.

Islamabad, August 14: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday said peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue is a “cornerstone” of Pakistan’s foreign policy and hoped that the recent steps taken by New Delhi and Islamabad would lead to “solid progress” in improving the situation in the region.

Addressing a function in Islamabad to mark Pakistan’s Independence Day, Gilani referred to the meetings President Asif Ali Zardari and he had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said: “I am very optimistic about the outcome of these meetings.”

Islamabad, August 14: Former President Pervez Musharraf, who was recently booked by police for illegally detaining scores of judges during the 2007 emergency, has said he will return to Pakistan very soon.

Musharraf told a TV news channel he would always be with Pakistan when he was needed. He said he had been busy making the rounds of the international academic circuit delivering lectures and would return to Pakistan as soon as he finished his commitments.

Islamabad, August 14: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday called on the people to defeat the forces preaching extremism and violence in the name of religion, saying this trend poses the greatest threat to the security and stability of the country.

“The mindset that increasingly preaches extremism, violence and militancy in the name of religion, and which has been on the rise in the country, is a direct negation of the values for which this country was created,” Mr. Zardari said in his message on the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day.

Islamabad, August 14: In a controversial move which has created ripples in Islamabad, the Obama administration has decided to spend around $1 billion from its $2.4 billion war supplemental package for Pakistan on the construction and strengthening of its new embassy in the capital and additional staffing of the mission.

Islamabad, August 14: Pakistanis’ views on the Taliban have shifted dramatically in the past year, with 70 percent now opposing the militants, according to a new poll. The United States doesn’t fare well either, with 64 percent of Pakistanis seeing Washington as an enemy.

The mounting unpopularity of the Taliban coincides with an explosion of militant violence in Pakistan — attacks have killed more than 2,500 people since the start of 2008 — and the extremists’ attempts to expand their reach and impose a harsh interpretation of Islam in new parts of the country.

Karachi, August 14: It was on August 14, 1947 that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan emerged on the world map as an independent sovereign state, carved out from the Indian Sub-Continent.

The nation is to celebrate its 63rd Independence Day anniversary on Friday with flag-hoisting ceremonies, tributes to its national heroes and fireworks.

Celebrations will begin with a 31-gun salute in the Federal Capital and a 21-gun salute in all the four provincial capitals.

Karachi, August 14: On the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day, the country’s rights watchdog alleges that the army is dictating vital foreign policy decisions and continues to remain in power.

Asma Jahangir, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) raided the allegations on Thursday stressing that she was not ‘trying to be pessimistic’.

Parachinar(Pakistan), August 13: Pakistani helicopter gunships pummeled several bases of a key Taliban commander in the country’s northwest Thursday, killing at least 12 insurgents, intelligence officials said.

The assault came as government forces ratchet up pressure on the northwestern militant network in the wake of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud’s reported death in a CIA missile strike on Aug. 5.

Islamabad, August 13: Despite being booked for “illegally” detaining scores of judges during the 2007 emergency, Pakistani police will not be able to arrest or question former President Pervez Musharraf without direct orders from the government, a media report said on Thursday.

Gen. Musharraf and other unnamed persons accused in a recently registered FIR of placing over 60 judges under house arrest “could not be arrested because of constitutional and legal immunity”, the Dawn newspaper quoted police officers as saying.

Karachi, August 13: At least 70 people are reported to have been killed and dozens injured in a major battle between Taliban fighters and another tribal group in Pakistan.

The fighting in South Waziristan erupted when fighers loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief, attacked the followers of Turkistan Bittani, who allied with the government after defecting the Taliban.

Bittani said that over 1,000 Mehsud fighters took place in the offence.

Islamabad, August 12: At least 70 people were killed and dozens injured Tuesday in clashes between Taliban militants and a pro-government militia in Pakistan’s ungoverned tribal belt that borders Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Wednesday.
The fighting erupted when dozens of militants loyal to local Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, attacked the followers of Turkistan Bittani, who allied with the government after defecting the Taliban, in Jandola area of tribal district South Waziristan.

Islamabad, August 12: Pakistan’s powerful spy agency ISI has been restructured by the government by weeding out 32 senior officers of the rank of Brigadiers and Colonels in a move to make it trim, a media report said on Wednesday.

The retrenchment exercise in the agency has been carried out to make it “more efficient and vibrant”, The News daily claimed, saying that the process will continue for two years.

Islamabad, August 12: Contacts between top Pakistani leaders and a British diplomat, who was previously involved in back-channel parleys to resolve political issues here, have triggered speculation that the UK is engaged in efforts to ward off the possible trial of ex-President Pervez Musharraf on charges of treason.

Mark Lyall Grant, a former High Commissioner to Pakistan who is currently Director General for political affairs in the British Foreign Office, called on President Asif Ali Zardari yesterday and met main opposition PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in Lahore this afternoon.

Islamabad, August 12: According to reports, Pak police have said Musharraf could face arrest on his return to the country. Legal experts said he could be given a three-year jail term if found guilty of illegally detaining the judges.

Pakistani police’s registration of a case against ex-President Pervez Musharraf for “illegal” detention of 60 judges during his tenure was the consequence of consultations at the highest levels of government, even as the Army too “kept mum” on the issue, a media report has said.

Islamabad, August 12: The government in Pakistan was flayed by the opposition today for allowing Indian films and serials to be beamed on television and cable, saying they helped to promote Indian culture and spoilt the youth.

The issue was raised in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament by opposition PML-Q member Bushra Rehman through a call attention notice.

Islamabad, August 11: The government in Pakistan was flayed by the opposition today for allowing Indian films and serials to be beamed on television and cable, saying they helped to promote Indian culture and spoilt the youth.

The issue was raised in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament by opposition PML-Q member Bushra Rehman through a call attention notice. The screening of such films amounted to the promotion of Indian culture by the privately owned channels and cable networks, she said.??

Washington, August 11: America’s increasing unpopularity in Pakistan is an issues of concern for the United States, the Obama administration has said.

The observations came in the wake of the latest poll by Gallup International’s Pakistan unit, which found that 59 per cent of Pakistanis consider the US the greatest threat to their country, five times as many people voting that way as they did for India, their traditional rival, or even the Pak Taliban.

United Nations, August 11: At least one-third of the more than two million Swat refugees have returned home, the United Nations Tuesday said, but expressed concern over the fresh round of displacement due to continued fighting in Pakistan’s tribal region.

“The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that, since mid-July, 765,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) — or 33 per cent of the total — have returned to their places of origin,” UN Deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters here.

London, August 11: As per media reports, the nuclear sites of Pakistan are believed to have been attacked thrice by terrorists in the last two years.

Islamabad/Mumbai, August 11: Pakistan has denied it had agreed to accept the bodies of four of the nine terrorists killed in the 26/11 Mumbai carnage as has been claimed by the Home Minister of India’s Maharashtra state.

Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit told Online news agency in Islamabad that reports on this in the Indian media were baseless and fabricated.

Washington, August 11: Pakistan is still identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters “operating in Kashmir, India and Afghanistan”, a latest Congressional report has said.

Though acknowledging that Pakistan has started taking strong military action against Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists in recent months, the report said, “Pakistan is identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters operating in Kashmir, India, and Afghanistan.”

Washington, August 11: The US had assigned as many as nine drones to hunt down and target Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud as the American officials stuck to their belief that Mehsud was dead.

“It was a dramatic escalation,” American officials said, claiming that stepped up surveillance had paid rich dividends when hellfire missiles from a predator drone had caught Mehsud helpless while the 35-year-old warlord was getting a leg massage on the roof of his father-in-law’s house.

Islamabad, August 11: Acting swiftly on a court order, police here have booked former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf for ordering the house arrest of the Supreme Court judges he had sacked after declaring an emergency Nov 3, 2007.

The ‘unprecedented first in Pakistan’s history’ could ‘actually see’ Musharraf land in prison ‘or at the minimum turn his stay abroad into a permanent exile’, The News said Tuesday.

Islamabad, August 11: In stepped up attacks, US drones today fired missiles at a Taliban training camp killing at least 10 militants in Pakistan”s lawless South Waziristan tribal region. This was the first drone attack after last Wednesday”s strike when CIA”s predators UAVs fired missiles and killed Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud in the same area.

In today”s attack the drone struck a target in Kanigram village in South Waziristan Agency, killing 10 Taliban militants, TV news channels reported. No further details were immediately available.