Pakistan News

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, an American educated Pakistani neuroscientist who is suffering from gunshot wounds, was granted access to urgent medical attention by a U.S. judge when she appeared for her bail hearing in a federal court on Monday.

British journalist Yvonne Ridley visited Pakistan recently and called on the international community to work for the release of ‘Prisoner 650’, held at the U.S. detention center 60 kilometers from Kabul.
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Karachi: Shoaib Akhtar, who was banned for five years for repeated breaches of discipline four months back, makes a return to the Pakistan squad for next month’s Champions Trophy.

Shoaib, who turns 33 on Wednesday, was included in a 15-member squad for the eight-nation tournament in a bid to add some firepower to the bowling attack that seemed quite toothless in the Asia Cup earlier this summer.
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Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
When I first visited Kashmir in 1981, the pros and cons of accession to India or Pakistan inevitably cropped up in conversation. One government official argued that the Kashmiri economy, highly dependent on fruit, had suffered because the state had become part of India rather than Pakistan.
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New Zealand Cricket will tomorrow host a high powered delegation sent here to persuade the national team to contest the Champions Trophy tournament in Pakistan next month.

The International Cricket Council delegation will be led by ICC general manager cricket David Richardson and includes Tim May, chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, and Pakistan coach and former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson.

The same delegation will also talk to Australian officials and players in Australia on Friday.

Leading players from New Zealand and Australia have expressed reservations over the security situation in Pakistan for the one-day tournament.

There is the prospect that neither country will send full-strength squads to the event.

NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan and New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association executive manager Heath Mills were in talks in Christchurch today and could not be reached for comment.

Pakistan Cricket Board communications director Mansur Sohail yesterday said the delegation’s trip was organised at the request of the ICC.

“It is a very logical thing to do and hopefully it will assuage concerns of leading players and make up their minds to come here,” Sohail said.

The ICC said the delegation would meet New Zealand officials tomorrow, and their Australian counterparts the next day.

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A leading al-Qaida military commander, reputed to be number three in the terror group, has been killed following several days of fierce fighting in Pakistan’s North West Frontier province.

Abu Saeed al-Masri, identified in local media reports as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, al-Qaida’s commander in Afghanistan, died during a battle in the Bajaur tribal area. Yazid claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Danish embassy in Islamabad earlier this year. He has also been linked to the assassination in December last year, of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
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Residents of Pakistan's Bajaur tribal area flee escalating violence in the area.

Owais Mughal

A business in Malir, Saudabad (Karachi) is selling working Computers by weight. The ad guarantees Pentium IV microprocessor PCs available in 10 or 15 kilogram versions.

The first line of the ad reads:

save thousands of rupees. Buy computers by weight

Main text in red reads:

Pentium IV Computers (available) at Rupees 399 [approx. US$6] per kilogram only

Does it show abundance of PC hardware in Pakistan? or is the country fast becoming a dumping ground for old PCs from rest of the world.

Photo Credits: Ahmed at Flickr.com. This photo also appears in Karachi Metroblogs.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, India misses you. It's a change of heart that reflects how low India-Pakistan relations have sunk in recent months - and the fears that they haven't yet hit bottom with ...

Aug 12 - At least thirteen people are killed as a bomb explodes under an air force bus in Pakistan.

A roadside bomb destroyed an air force truck on a bridge Tuesday in Pakistan’s volatile northwest and killed up to 14 people. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it “an open war” and retaliation for recent military operations in the region.

The escalation in violence raised new doubt about the government’s controversial policy of negotiating for peace with Islamic militants. Western officials say it has given Taliban and al-Qaida time to regroup and more freedom to operate.
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