A senior leader of opppsition Pakistan Tahreek- e- Insaf party said on Sunday that police had arrested former finance minister Hammad Azhar in the eastern city of Multan and transferred him to custody in Lahore, an action the party branded political retaliation.
Politics
Military reports major toll in three-day campaign against India-backed militants near Afghan border
Pakistan’s military said on Sunday that security forces killed at least 36 militants in a series of operations along the Afghan border over three days, as the government renewed its demand that the Taliban administration in Kabul curb cross-border attacks it blames on Afghan soil.
Afridi vows to stay in until Karachi rally is held
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said on Sunday night he would not leave Sindh without holding a planned Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf rally in Karachi, raising the possibility that the standoff over the gathering could stretch into a second day.
Pakistan army chief visits Balochistan amid surge in militant violence
QUETTA: Pakistan’s top military officer travelled on Saturday to Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, delivering a message of solidarity to a region convulsed by one of the most violent stretches of insurgent activity it has seen in years — even as questions persisted about how many people have actually died in the government’s response.
Naqvi reopens debate over provincial boundaries; says public, not politicians, must decide
LAHORE: Pakistan’s interior minister said on Saturday that any effort to create new provinces or administrative units in the country must be driven by public demand rather than political calculation, reviving a debate that has strained relations among the government’s coalition partners and drawn sharp opposition from officials in Sindh province.
Defence minister accuses key coalition ally of playing both sides on new provinces
ISLAMABAD: Defence minister Khawaja Asif accused a key partner in the country’s governing coalition of political hypocrisy over one of the most combustible questions in Pakistani politics: whether to redraw the map of a nation held together, at times uneasily, by four provinces.
In Pakistan, a fight over provinces map splits ruling coalition
ISLAMABAD: A long-dormant argument over how Pakistan should be governed has burst back into public view this week, pitting the country’s two largest ruling parties against each other and drawing in a president, a prime minister, and at least three federal ministers.
Pakistan says 48 militants killed in Balochistan crackdown as violence surges
ISLAMABAD: Security forces had killed 48 militants over the previous three days in a series of raids across Balochistan province, the latest and largest tally in a counterterrorism campaign that has intensified as the country’s southwest sinks deeper into violence.
ISI’s No. 2 officer takes reins of sidelined counterterrorism Nacta
ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday abruptly moved one of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency’s most senior officers, Major General Faisal Naseer, out of his post overseeing the spy service’s internal wing and into the top civilian job at the National Counter-Terrorism Authority, a body that has spent more than a decade struggling to fulfill the mandate lawmakers gave it after some of the country’s darkest days of militant violence.
Pakistan says 15 terrorists killed in 36-hour battle to stop Afghan border infiltration
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed 15 militants during a 36-hour operation to repel an infiltration attempt along the country’s border with Afghanistan, in the latest flashpoint in a relationship between the two neighbours that has grown increasingly strained over cross-border attacks.