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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...

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...

Pakistan sent former premier Nawaz Sharif back to exile in Saudi Arabia on Monday, hours after he returned home vowing to topple President Pervez Musharraf, the man who ousted him eight years ago. Police detained the 57-year-old Sharif on corruption charges on his arrival at Islamabad airport following a tense standoff involving his passport. He was deported soon after, put on a plane heading for Saudi Arabia. Sharif had pledged his return would provide "a final push to the crumbling dictatorship" of Musharraf, the army chief and key US ally who has watched his grip on power weaken after months...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police manned roadblocks and rounded up supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who left London Sunday after seven years in exile to return to Pakistan and lead a campaign to topple the country's U.S.-allied military ruler. Before leaving London, Sharif warned that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government might try to arrest or deport him. At the last minute, he asked his brother Shahbaz Sharif to remain in Britain so that he can lead the party in case anything happens to the former prime minister. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information....

SLAMABAD: A two-judge Bench headed by re-instated Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry on Thursday ruled that the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother can return home from their "forced exile". The petitions of Sharif and his brother Shabaz was filed on August 2 and was listed for hearing by Chaudhry and senior judge M Javed Buttar. The Supreme Court ruled, "It is a settled proposition of law that the right to enter in the country cannot be denied but a citizen can be restrained from going out of the country. The petitioner (Sharif) is a...

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 (New Delhi): Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif claims that Pervez Mushrraf who was his Army Chief was planning a nuclear strike against India during the Kargil war. The claims are a part of Sharif's official biography. "During my post-Kargil misadventure meeting with President Clinton, I was told by the American leader that nuclear warheads had been shifted from one station to another during the Kargil war. "I was taken aback by this revelation because I knew nothing about it. The American president further told me that the nuclear warheads have been moved so that these...

Every year, as we enter a New Year, my mind goes back to Daniel Pearl, the Mumbai-based American correspondent of Wall Street Journal, who met with a brutal end to his young life during a visit to Karachi in January 2002 to enquire, inter alia, into the suspected Pakistani links of international jihadi terrorists. In his keenness to find out the truth, Pearl fell into a treacherous trap laid by a mixed group of Pakistani terrorists belonging to different organisations and orchestrated by Omar Sheikh, a British resident of Pakistani origin, who had participated in the so-called jihad against the...

A High-Risk Nuclear Stakeout The U.S. took too long to act, some experts say, letting a Pakistani scientist sell illicit technology well after it knew of his operation. By Douglas Frantz, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year. Two Western nuclear weapons specialists who have examined the top-secret designs say the hundreds of pages of engineering drawings and handwritten notes...

(Islamabad/Moscow, October 25) There is now a nuclear dimension to the Afghan war. A second retired Pakistani atomic scientist was picked up by Islamabad on Tuesday night on the suspicion that he was developing a nuclear device for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. The arrests followed tip-offs by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Pakistani authorities. Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood and Abdul Majeed, both scientists who had retired from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), were picked up after the FBI provided evidence of their links to jehadi outfits. The Pakistan Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haidar, said on ...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's probe into its secret nuclear programme has revealed limited approval of cooperation with Iran by former military ruler Zia-ul-Haq while the fate of its father of atomic bomb Dr A Q Khan hangs in balance. The investigation of nuclear scientists, currently being grilled to determine allegations of proliferation of nuclear technology to Iran, pointed out that at least two Pakistani scientists acted inappropriately and exchanged information with Iran beyond the limit authorised to them by the government in late 1980s, the News daily reported on Saturday. It said one of them could be booked for violating Official Secrets...

WASHINGTON: Under tremendous pressure from the United States, Islamabad’s ruling dispensation appears to be zeroing in on Pakistan’s national hero, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, as the source of nuclear proliferation. Several people, perhaps up to 25, included some of Khan’s closest aides, have been detained in recent days. Some of them have been dragged out of their homes kicking and screaming, according to family members who have spoken to the Pakistani media. Khan himself has been treated more circumspectly, but he has also been questioned exhaustively and further steps against him seem imminent. The military government already seems to be...