POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Suicide Bombings Ruin Election Campaigning

Escalating violence in the run up to general elections on Feb. 18 has made campaigning impossible for political parties and their supporters in Pakistan’s lawless border areas.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Ailing Gitmo Prisoner May Die Says His Lawyer

Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national incarcerated in the United States military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba since September 2004, suffers from a serious heart condition and may not live unless provided special care, says his lawyer.

ENVIRONMENT-PAKISTAN: Army Factory Effluents Kill Cattle – Won’t Own Up

The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), known to go about its work with zeal, appears to have run up against a particularly formidable polluter - a fertiliser factory run by the Pakistan army.

Q&A: ‘Half Our Job Is Done If We Have The Imams On Our Side’

At 31, Dr Donya Aziz, was the youngest legislator to join the previous Pakistan Muslim League (Q) government. Busy running for the February elections, Aziz wants to get back into the assembly and resume the work she had to leave off when President Pervez Musharraf clamped emergency rule on Nov. 3, 2007 and dissolved the house.

PAKISTAN: Sunni-Shia Strife Triggers Exodus Along Afghan Border

Violent sectarian strife in the border Kurram tribal area, already riven with conflict between pro-Taliban and Pakistan government forces, has led to over 500 deaths, and an exodus of civilians to the neighbouring North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Cybercrime Law Infringes on Rights – Activists

An ordinance introduced this month to curb electronic crime has come under criticism for clauses that seem to be aimed at censoring free speech and cutting civil liberties.

POLITICS-US: War on Terror Moves East

The Pentagon's announcement here Tuesday that it is dispatching some 3,200 marines to Afghanistan underlines both Washington's mounting concern about the strength of the Taliban insurgency and the growing sense here that the central front in its nearly six-and-a-half-year-old "war on terror" has moved back to its South Asian roots.

PAKISTAN: Beset By Multiple Crises

Food shortages, cold homes, political instability and internal security problems are haunting Pakistan’s embattled President Pervez Musharraf who appears helpless as multiple crises erode his legitimacy and his capacity to manage affairs of the state.

PAKISTAN: Food Shortages Dim Public Enthusiasm For Polls

While the drawing rooms of Pakistan’s rich and powerful are abuzz with speculations on who killed Benazir Bhutto, and whether or not the elections in February are going to be free and fair, the question on the minds of most ordinary people is how to get their daily bread.

PAKISTAN: Musharraf’s Blame-Game Raises Pashtun Hackles

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s initial assertion that the pro-Taliban, Baitullah Mahsud, a Pashtun tribal leader, was behind the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has not gone down well in the restless North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

POLITICS: Pakistanis See U.S. as Greatest Threat

Amid reports that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is considering aggressive covert actions against armed Islamist forces in western Pakistan, a new survey released here Monday suggested that such an effort would be opposed by an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis themselves.

PAKISTAN: Bhutto&#39s Murder Rekindles Ethnic Suspicions

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the powerful Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and twice prime minister, has pushed to the brink a country already known for regionalism and ethnic suspicion.

POLITICS: A Tribunal for Bhutto?

When former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri died in a bomb blast in February 2005, the United Nations Security Council immediately passed a resolution calling for the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate his murder.

CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Bush’s Twilight Year Looks Grim

If the last days of 2007 are any indication, U.S. President George W. Bush’s last year in office is shaping up as grim and lonely.

PAKISTAN: Violence Stalks Polls in Frontier Areas

One day before she was killed in a gunfire attack-cum-suicide blast near the Pakistani capital city, Benazir Bhutto, was in this town in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) addressing an election rally organised by her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

POLITICS: Bhutto’s Killing May Threaten Pakistan’s Stability

The assassination of Pakistan's opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto threatens to de-stabilise a country which the United States describes as a trusted ally and a frontline fighter in the global war on terrorism.

PAKISTAN: Benazir Bhutto Pays with Life for Democracy

Benazir Bhutto has paid the heaviest price possible for her insistence on engaging in participatory, democratic politics in Pakistan.

CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Spate of Suicide Bombings Auger Ill for Pakistan

As hundreds prostrated in prayer on one of Islam’s major festivals in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), last week, a powerful bomb exploded inside the mosque killing 48 worshippers and wounding close to 200.

PAKISTAN: Rail Accidents – More Than Nuts and Bolts

While authorities have attributed the Dec. 19 railway tragedy to a possible rail fracture from cold weather, experts say the issue is not about nuts and bolts but a reflection of overall transport policy.

PAKISTAN: US Stuck With Reluctant, Inept Partner in Terror War

Demands by U.S. politicians and policymakers that Pakistan co-operate more closely with Washington in its "war on terror" fail to take account of both the Pakistani military's strategic priorities and its incompetence, particularly in conducting counter-insurgency operations, according to a new study by an influential regional specialist.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Emergency Lifted But Democracy Elusive

President Pervez Musharraf’s lifting of emergency rule over Pakistan and restoration of the Constitution is insufficient to put the country on the path to democracy say civil rights activists.