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The ISI has influence over every terrorist group and uses this to its “advantage”, Pervez Musharraf has said in a rare admission that corroborates India’s suspicions of Pakistani hand in attacks. The former President debunked Pakistan’s oft-repeated position that its ISI had no role in terror activities across the border and claimed that the intelligence agency was effective because of such influence — which he chose to describe by using the word “ingress”. “Always, in every group, there is an ingress of the ISI. And that is the efficiency, the effectiveness of the ISI. You must have ingress, so that...

The United States today said it is taking seriously revelations by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that aid provided by America for the war against terrorism was diverted during his tenure to strengthen defences against India. A state department official said the US takes all such allegations seriously and there is a procedure to investigate any violation, diversion of its aid by any country. But the official refused to confirm if any investigation in this regard was in place with respect to Pakistan. At the same time, he said, the allegations were not specific and as of now the US...

ISLAMABAD: Former President Pervez Musharraf has said that military aid provided by the US to Pakistan for the war against terror during his tenure had been used to strengthen defences against India, the first such admission by any top Pakistani leader. Musharraf admitted that he had violated rules governing the use of the military aid, and justified his actions by saying he had "acted in the best interest of Pakistan." In an interview with a news channel, he said he "did not care" whether the US would be angered by his disclosure. The former military ruler, who resigned as President...

LAHORE: Former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf has blamed India for the formation of terror groups such as the JeM. Talking to a private television channel, Musharraf said it was the oppression of Muslims in India by the Hindus which forced the Pakistani youth to take up militancy and extremism and form terrorist groups such as JeM. Musharraf also defended his action of supporting the United States in its ‘war on terror’ post 9/11 attack saying Pakistan’s existence could have been endangered if he would have not done so.

During Kargil, Pervez sent me to N Korea, got 200 missiles: A Q Khan Lalit K Jha Posted: Thursday , Sep 10, 2009 at 0509 hrs Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan has said his country was short of anti-aircraft missiles during the 1999 Kargil War, so General Pervez Musharraf sent him to North Korea to purchase 200 missiles. In an interview to Pakistani Urdu TV channel Aaj News — its translation has been obtained by Secrecy News of the Federation of American Scientists — Khan said: “In 1999, Gen Musharraf sent me along with Gen Iftikhar, who was...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The greatest threats to Pakistan come from the Taliban, al Qaeda and homegrown extremists and not from India, former Pakistani president and army chief Pervez Musharraf told an Indian television news channel. The United States would like the Pakistan army to be less preoccupied by any potential threat from India and concentrate on destroying the Taliban and al Qaeda forces ranging across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. "Obviously at this moment there is no war scenario and there are no threats at this moment," Musharraf said of India during an interview with CNN-IBN that was recorded on Wednesday in...

Former Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf has said he would be prepared to return to office in Pakistan if the political and economic situation in his country continues to deteriorate.In a rare interview since being forced to resign from office last year, Mr Musharraf, said he would consider serving a second term as Pakistan's president if he felt he could make a valuable contribution. "If Pakistan is in a nosedive, or about to self-destruct, if I can contribute something to rectify the situation, certainly I will. My life is for Pakistan," he said. "I still believe that Pakistan comes first."...

After eight years of rule in Pakistan, the former President retired Gen. Parvez Musharraf is now thinking of donning the Presidential suit by a more democratic method. Musharraf is thinking of launching a new political party in Pakistan, which he will be using as his vehicle to the country's top post. Quoting sources privy to the former President, said that a political party named "Pasdaran-e-Pakistan" is expected to be launched by the ex-military ruler. "When the general euphoria that followed the elections of February 18th ,2008, was replaced by a general sense of disappointment because of the dismal performance of...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON — Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the United Nations, is facing angry questions from other senior Bush administration officials over what they describe as unauthorized contacts with Asif Ali Zardari, a contender to succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan. Mr. Khalilzad had spoken by telephone with Mr. Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, several times a week for the past month until he was confronted about the unauthorized contacts, a senior United States official said. Other officials said Mr. Khalilzad had planned to meet with Mr. Zardari privately next Tuesday while on vacation...

Pakistan's governing coalition is on the verge of collapse less than a week after the partners successfully forced out the country's former army chief and president, Pervez Musharraf. The Pakistan Muslim League (N) will meet Monday to decide whether to abandon support for the Pakistan People's Party, the coalition's senior partner, according to a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League, Ahsan Iqbal. Mr. Iqbal says the Pakistan People's Party has "unilaterally" taken recent decisions, casting a pall over a political partnership formed after February's parliamentary elections. The coalition's two main parties have split sharply over the restoration of judges that...

Benazir Bhutto widower Asif Ali Zardari set to replace Pervez Musharraf Zahid Hussain in Islamabad Asif Ali Zardari, the controversial widower of Benazir Bhutto, became the front-runner to replace Pervez Musharraf as Pakistan’s President yesterday when he was nominated to run in an election scheduled for next month. Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) nominated Mr Zardari unanimously four days after Mr Musharraf resigned. Mr Musharraf’s departure deprived the West of its key Muslim ally in the War on Terror. “Zardari thanked Pakistan People’s Party of which he is the co-chairman and said he will announce his decision within the...

Nukes unlikely to be affected by Musharraf leaving By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 19, 12:38 AM ET Pervez Musharraf's departure from the presidency is unlikely to have a significant impact on how Pakistan's nuclear weapons are controlled. Experts say a 10-member committee, and not just the president, makes decisions on how to use them and only a complete meltdown in governance — still a distant prospect in Pakistan — could put the atomic bomb in the hands of extremists. "Pakistan's nuclear assets are not one man's property," said Maria Sultan, a defense analyst and director at the...

War On Terror: Conventional wisdom says Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's forced resignation robs the West of a key strategic terror ally. Truth is, he was a reluctant ally at best.Let's hope his exit will force the new democratically elected government to focus on the Islamist threat that only grew larger on his watch. Musharraf stepped down to avoid impeachment charges nine years after taking power in a military coup. The general abused his power by sacking a supreme court justice and dozens of other judges who dared rule that he had to remove his uniform and hold free elections as...

Islamabad, 18 August (AKI) - US President George W. Bush will continue to work with Pakistan in the fight against terrorism following the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf, the White House said on Monday. In a statement, Bush acknowledged Musharraf for his efforts to strengthen democracy and fight terrorism and pledged to continue its commitment in the future. "President Bush is committed to a strong Pakistan that continues its efforts to strengthen democracy and fight terror," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. Musharraf resigned in a televised address to the nation on Monday to avoid facing impeachment moves...

"....Pakistan now enters a dangerous moment of instability. It is not yet clear who will replace Musharraf, and as I’ve written before, Pakistan has long been one car bomb away from a bin Laden-ally seizing power. Should an al Qaeda-type Radical gain control of the country and its nuclear weapons, we could be facing an apocalyptic moment....." For all his many flaws, Musharraf was steadily becoming a Reformer. After 9/11, he became a key ally of the U.S., helping us in our war against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan rather than interferring. He and his security forces worked...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Pervez Musharraf stepped down from his post Monday, ending a nearly nine-year tenure that his opponents said was hindering Pakistan's shaky return to democracy. Musharraf said he wanted to spare Pakistan from a dangerous power struggle with opponents vowing to impeach him. He said he was satisfied that all he had done "was for the people and for the country."

via translation ALERT - The President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigns ISLAMABAD - President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan announced his resignation Monday, the eve of an impeachment procedure announced by his government.

Excerpt - ISLAMABAD, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, under pressure to step down before he is impeached, will address the nation at 1 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday, an official in the president's office told Reuters. Speculation the former army chief and firm U.S. ally will resign has been mounting since the coalition government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said this month it planned to impeach him. ~ snip ~

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief dashed to Pakistan for talks with the government over its plans to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, a senior official in Islamabad said Saturday. The visit of Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz came as a minister from the ruling coalition pressed Musharraf to stand down within two days and avoid putting the country through a destabilising impeachment battle. "Yes, Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz did visit Pakistan on Friday and met senior government officials," a senior coalition official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Faced with desertions by his political supporters and the neutrality of the Pakistani military, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, an important ally of the United States, is expected to resign in the next few days rather than face impeachment charges, Pakistani politicians and Western diplomats said Thursday. His departure from office would be likely to unleash new instability in the country as the two main parties in the civilian government jockeyed for the division of power. The details of how Mr. Musharraf would exit, and whether he would be able to stay in Pakistan — apparently his...

Musharraf to Leave Office By ZAHID HUSSAIN and PETER WONACOTT August 14, 2008 1:02 p.m. ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is expected to leave office in the next few days before Pakistan's Parliament takes up impeachment proceedings against him after the president's aides and officials of Pakistan's leading political party reached a breakthrough in secret talks designed to ease Mr. Musharraf's departure from office, according to a person familiar with the situation.

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf has decided in principle to quit and a decision in this context will be announced by him on August 14, Independence Day, a senior Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader confided to Daily Times. It is learnt that if he resigns ahead of the impeachment the ruling coalition will give him safe passage. Apologise to people: One advice given to President Musharraf is to apologise to the people of Pakistan and the judiciary for sacking Iftikhar Chaudhry and the other judges and restore them all before quitting. Another advice to him is to restore the judges and...

Excerpt - ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan's ruling coalition has agreed to launch impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf, party sources told AFP on Thursday. ~ snip ~

Operation Sirat-e-Mustaqeem: as straight as a coil! Wednesday, July 02, 2008 By Mohammad Malick PESHAWAR: Who is really in charge in the Khyber Agency and who has written the script of the operation Sirat-e-Mustakeem to deal with the Fata situation and are the unfolding events unravelling as per the predetermined script? One militant commander claimed that an informal arrangement had been reached prior to the beginning of the operation whereby approximately 25 ‘bigger structures’ shall be blown in the Bara region by the security forces and then the process will stop. We will soon know whether this statement is true...

Musharraf toeing US line to break Pakistan: A Q Khan Thursday, June 26, 2008 News Desk RAWALPINDI: President Pervez Musharraf is working on the US agenda of dismembering Pakistan by 2015, a news agency reported here Wednesday quoting renowned Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. It quoted Dr Khan as having told an Urdu-language weekly published from New York in a telephonic interview that Musharraf is doing whatever the US wants. He said the US plans to break up Pakistan by 2015. Bitterly criticising the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said it is not an international organisation but...

Excerpt - ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stepped up his attack on President Pervez Musharraf at a rally of protesters outside the presidency on Saturday, suggesting he could be hanged. "We asked you (Musharraf) to quit with honour after the election but you didn't," Sharif told the crowd. "Now people have given a new judgment for you... they want you to be held accountable." The crowd, running into several thousands, chanted "hang Musharraf" as it listened to the two-time former PM's fiery speech. "Is hanging only for politicians?" said Sharif, referring to former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, hanged...

ISLAMABAD: Beleaguered Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has "made up his mind to call it a day" and he may do so in the very near future, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Although the president's official spokesman denied this, Musharraf "has no option left but to quit", the News said, quoting highly placed sources. Musharraf "has made up his mind to call it a day and he can make an announcement in this regard any time. His closest aides are of the view that after losing all hope of survival in power, the president has made up his mind to lead...

Pakistani lawyers beat up former Musharraf minister 1 hour, 16 minutes ago A crowd including Pakistani lawyers beat up a former government minister and ally of President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday, prompting a top pro-democracy lawyer to quit his post. Dozens of attorneys surrounded ex-parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan Niazi in the eastern city of Lahore, television channels showed, highlighting tensions since Musharraf's allies were trounced in elections in February. Aitzaz Ahsan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and leading supporter of ousted chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, said he was quitting after the incident. "I have decided...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's state-run news agency is quoting a senior Islamabad administrator as saying that all judges detained under the government of President Pervez Musharraf are free. His announcement came after newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told parliament he wanted the judges released immediately. The report quotes deputy Islamabad commissioner Amir Ahmed Ali as saying "the order of the prime minister has been implemented and all deposed judges are free to move." President Pervez Musharraf fired 60 judges in November under a state of emergency.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's elections were supposed to usher in democracy after eight years of military rule, but for Talat Hussain life doesn't look much different. Every time his TV station tries to air shows critical of President Pervez Musharraf, the screen goes black. Pakistan's main opposition parties announced they would form a coalition government to bring civilian rule after voters delivered a crushing blow to the pro-Musharraf ruling party in Feb. 18 parliamentary polls. Two days after the vote, Aaj, the privately owned station where Hussain is news director, was knocked off the air. Its signal has been jammed...

WASHINGTON - Three senators who met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf after opposition parties won a governing majority last week urged a "graceful exit" from power for the close Bush terror-fighting ally. "Were I their political adviser, that's what I would advise," Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday. He did not favor an attempt by that new coalition to impeach Musharraf; the parties have enough seats to govern, but not enough to impeach the president. "I firmly believe if they do not focus on old grudges — and there's plenty in Pakistan — and...

Confounding all predictions, the Pakistani people have clearly demonstrated that they want to choose their own rulers and decide their own future. There is a consensus from Lahore to Karachi It has not been a good year for Pakistan. President Musharraf's sacking of the chief justice last spring, the lawyers' protests that rumbled on throughout the summer and the bloody storming of the Red Mosque in June, followed by a wave of hideous suicide bombings, all gave the impression of a country stumbling from bloody crisis to bloody crisis. By the autumn it had grown even worse. The military defeats...

Leaders of the newly-elected parliament in Pakistan will demand that Pervez Musharraf resign from the presidency. They have rejected a plea from the US to keep Musharraf in place, and they plan to reinstate the judges Musharraf purged in order to have a means to push him out of office if he does not go willingly: The Bush administration is pressing the opposition leaders who defeated Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to allow the former general to retain his position, a move that Western diplomats and U.S. officials say could trigger the very turmoil the United States seeks to avoid. U.S....

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- President Bush Wednesday called Pakistan's elections a "part of the victory in the war on terror" even though it effectively robbed a key Washington ally, President Pervez Musharraf, of his authority over the nuclear-armed nation. Bush said he hoped that the new Pakistan government would be "friends of the United States," a significant concern for his administration. Washington has poured billions of dollars in aid into Musharraf's government in in an effort to contain the threat of Islamic extremism along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. "There was a victory for the people of Pakistan and that is, there...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Fed up with violence and economic hardship, voters in the deeply conservative northwest have thrown out the Islamist parties that ruled this province for five years — a clear sign that Pakistanis are rejecting religious extremism in a region where al-Qaida and the Taliban have sought refuge. Instead, voters in turbulent North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, gave their support to secular parties that promised to pave the streets, create jobs and bring peace through dialogue and economic incentives to the extremists. That may conflict with U.S. pressure to step up the fight against armed militants...

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 major political setback for Musharraf, a key ally of Washington in fighting Taliban and al-Qaida, whose popularity has...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - President Pervez Musharraf will not step down as head of state and intends to serve out his five-year-term, his spokesman says, despite a sweeping election victory by his opponents—some of whom want to drive him from power. Final results from this week's parliamentary poll were expected Wednesday, but with the count nearly complete, two opposition parties had won enough seats to form a new government, though they will likely fall short of the two-thirds needed to impeach the president. Musharraf's spokesman Rashid Qureshi said Tuesday the president intends to work with the new government and will...

Despite suffering a landslide loss in parliamentary elections, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has no intention to resign from office. After the successful and fair elections produced a lopsided coalition between Benazir Bhutto's PPP and Nawaz Sharif's PML-N, Sharif called for Musharraf to leave office. Sharif could make it impossible for Musharraf to stay: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he intends to remain in office and work with the new government, despite the trouncing that the country's parliamentary elections handed his ruling party and calls by the opposition to step down. In an interview posted on the Wall Street Journal's Web...

Pakistan has successfully held elections for the National Assembly and provincial governments, and President Pervez Musharraf and the pro-Taliban Muttahida Majlis-e-Amil, or MMA, have encountered major setbacks. Musharraf has lost his governing coalition, while the MMA lost most of its seats in the National Assembly as well as control of the Northwest Frontier Province. The Pakistan People's Party has won the majority of seats and will form the government, while the Pakistani Muslim League - Nawaz finished a close second. The Awami National Party also won a surprising victory. Election Results Election results are available for 240 of the 272...

The Pakistanis have rejected both Pervez Musharraf and the Islamists in their national and provincial elections yesterday, preliminary results show. Supporters of slain national leader Benazir Bhutto and returned exile Nawaz Sharif will dominate the national and provincial assemblies, and Musharraf will have to deal with a hostile but moderate Parliament: After being sidelined for more than eight years by army intervention, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) seemed headed for a shock comeback as initial partial results of Monday’s elections put a question mark over President Pervez Musharraf’s political future. The previously ruling Pakistan Muslim...

As Pakistanis went to the polls Monday to vote for a new parliament, early indications showed the party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the lead, with that of President Pervez Musharraf trailing behind, FOX News has learned. Voter turnout was light to moderate, with fears of militant attacks and rigging keeping many Pakistanis at home. The elections were held Monday after a six-week delay in the vote, seen as a key step toward democracy after eight years of military rule under Musharraf, whose political survival hung in the balance.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistanis dealt a crushing defeat to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections Monday, in what government and opposition politicians said was a firm rejection of his policies since 2001 and those of his close ally, the United States. Almost all the leading figures in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the party that has governed for the last five years under Mr. Musharraf, lost their seats, including the leader of the party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein, the former speaker of parliament, Chaudhry Amir Hussein, and six ministers. Though official results would not be announced until Tuesday, early returns indicated that...

The party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto remained in the lead Monday and that of President Pervez Musharraf trailed behind in third place as vote-counting continued at the close of polls in Pakistan — a stunning development with major implications for the war on terror in the United States and abroad. Early indications showed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party in a strong first place in the parliamentary elections, followed by opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q was trailing in third. Two opinion polls had predicted those results going into Monday's...

** EXCERPT ** ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said Friday it would try to remove President Pervez Musharraf if it wins next week's parliamentary elections. Although Musharraf is not up for re-election, he could face impeachment if the opposition wins a commanding majority in the legislature. "The ouster of Musharraf will put Pakistan back on the track of real democracy," Babar Awan, a member of the central executive council of the Pakistan People's Party, told The Associated Press.Recent opinion surveys ahead of Monday's balloting show the party running well ahead of Musharraf supporters. "We...

Pakistan military strikes ceasefire deal with Taliban U.S. Caught Off-GuardPeter Goodspeed,  National Post Desperate for a violence-free election on Feb. 18, the Pakistan military has orchestrated a ceasefire with the very Taliban leader they accused of ordering the assassination of Benazir Bhutto....The latest ceasefire could not come at a more embarrassing time for Washington-- the day the Taliban announced the deal, U.S. officials were publicly praising Pakistan for taking a fiercer stand against Islamist radicals.On Wednesday, Mike McConnell, U.S. director of national intelligence, told a Senate committee on Intelligence, "What's happened is Pakistan has now recognized that this is an existential...

Scotland Yard has concluded that Benazir Bhutto did not die from a gunshot wound, but instead died from the blast of the suicide bomber's explosion immediately afterward. The Bhutto family and her political party have rejected the findings, and they have renewed their calls for a UN investigation: Scotland Yard said in a report released Friday that Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a suicide bomb blast, not a gunshot — findings that support the Pakistani government's version of the events. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party immediately rejected the British conclusion and repeated its demand for a...

Pervez Musharraf has apparently learned little from his tussle with the Taliban. Reports have Pakistan entering into negotiations .... again ... with the Taliban .... again ... for another cease-fire. This time, they have even more bargaining chips, having control of the Swat region: Taliban militants declared a cease-fire Wednesday in fighting with Pakistani forces, and the government said it was preparing for peace talks with al-Qaida-linked extremists in the lawless tribal area near the border with Afghanistan. Any deal that allows armed Islamic extremists to operate on Pakistani soil would run counter to U.S. demands for the government to...

~excerpt~IN THE MIDST OF AN eight-day trip through Europe designed to assuage fears that his country is sliding toward chaos, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has reaffirmed that parliamentary elections will be held on February 18. Though the last year has certainly shown us that events in Pakistan are always subject to change, the election date should be considered about as stable as anything in Pakistan's political scene. With less than a month before these elections, it is a good time to assess the influence that Benazir Bhutto's assassination will have. Even when Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October, "reform" (whatever...

UK lacks counter-terror policy, says Musharraf · Pakistani president hits back at British critics · Your Islamist militants are home-grown, Brown told Julian Borger, diplomatic editor Tuesday January 29, 2008 The Guardian (UK) Prime minister Gordon Brown and Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf hold a press conference inside 10 Downing Street, January 28 2008. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, claimed yesterday that Britain lacked a long-term counter-terrorist strategy and argued that Islamist extremism was a home-grown problem for Britain rather than his country's responsibility. Speaking before meeting Gordon Brown in Downing Street, and in response to persistent British criticism of his record...

Did they or didn't they? That may sound like a question from a paparazzi magazine, but in diplomatic circles, it could mean life or death. After a chance encounter in the lobby of a Parisian hotel, Pervez Musharraf and Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak reportedly held a second, 20-minute meeting to discuss fears of an Iranian nuclear-weapons program: Pakistan's president held a rare and secret meeting with Israel's defense minister in a Paris hotel last week, and the Iranian nuclear program figured high on the agenda, Israeli defense officials said Monday. The two states have no diplomatic ties, and their...