Death toll in Mingora suicide bombing reaches 50  Saturday, March 01, 2008  MINGORA: The death toll in the suicide bombing here reached 50, while the 16 dead persons were buried in the echoing shrieks and screams of the bereaved throwing the volatile valley into an unprecedented sorrowful and saddened environment. Three more persons, who were wounded Friday evening in the suicide bombing at the funeral prayer of DSP Javed Iqbal here, succumbed to their injuries at the Peshawar Lady Reading Hospital, which has ... Read More

Musharraf will leave office peaceably - Biden Special Correspondent NEW YORK - A key U.S. senator said Monday that President Pervez Musharraf gave the congressional delegation that he led to Pakistan an impression that he would step back from the exercise of the kind of power he has exercised and eventually leave the office peaceably. "I think he will go gently into the good night," Joseph Biden told Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank, when asked to elaborate his call ... Read More

Asif to host ‘show of strength’ party today By Amir Waseem ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: The first show of strength by three major parties -- Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-N and Awami National Party -- which emerged victorious in the Feb 18 elections will be held here on Wednesday at a luncheon hosted by PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari for the newly-elected MNAs. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, president Shahbaz Sharif and ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan are expected to attend the luncheon meeting where the ... Read More

Press Trust Of India Lahore, February 26, 2008 Ruling out indemnity for "illegal steps" taken by President Pervez Musharraf during the emergency rule last year, former Pakistan premier and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said one of his top priorities would be to rid the country of "dictatorship". He asked the former military ruler to quit as President and said there would be no indemnity for "illegal and unconstitutional steps" taken by him during emergency. Sharif said his PML-N party would not compromise ... Read More

LONDON: Pervez Musharraf is considering stepping down as President of Pakistan rather than waiting to be forced out by his victorious opponents, claimed by British Newspaper The Sunday Telegraph. According to the newspaper, one close confidante said that the President believed he had run out of options after three of the main parties who triumphed in last week’s poll announced they would form a coalition government together, and also pledged to reinstate the country’s chief justice and 60 other judges sacked ... Read More

Soomro’s gift to himself: Live happily forever Updated at   By Ansar AbbasiISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro has awarded Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, and his family, a life-long gift of a tax-free, hassle-free, well protected high flying retired life with diplomatic passports and much more, costing the state millions of rupees. And as an unavoidable consequence of his controversial action, one more PML-Q leader and former Senate chairman, Waseem Sajjad and his family, will also keep thanking him for ever because Soomro ... Read More

 The man, who rigged 2002 polls, spills the beans Updated at   By Umar CheemaISLAMABAD: The main wheeler and dealer of the ISI during the 2002 elections, the then Maj-Gen Ehtesham Zamir, now retired, has come out of the closet and admitted his guilt of manipulating the 2002 elections, and has directly blamed Gen Musharraf for ordering so. Talking to The News, the head of the ISI’s political cell in 2002, admitted manipulating the last elections at the behest of President Musharraf and ... Read More

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's president will not step down as head of state and intends to serve out his five-year term, his spokesman said, despite a sweeping victory by his opponents in an election that President Bush on Wednesday judged to be fair. But with the vote count nearly complete, two opposition parties have won enough seats to form a new government, though they will likely fall short of the two-thirds needed to impeach the president. The result is seen as a ... Read More

Published in The Independent, it is definitely worth reading. ‘Since you were so kind as to greet us in London at Downing Street last month, the President would like to return the favour,” announces Major-General Rashid Qureshi, President Pervez Musharraf’s PR man over the phone. Only in Pakistan could the government’s head of spin be a retired major-general. He is referring to my last encounter with the President on 28 January – when, along with a 2,000-strong, placard-waving, slogan-jeering mob, I ... Read More