President Zardari briefed by Obama ahead of speech

Nice little headsup to Pres. Zardari , Give him some time to come up with a plan to Calm his people down when they Just don't hear what they want !

....Dawn.com
ISLAMABAD: President Barack Obama on Tuesday night telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and briefed him on the White House’s new Afghan strategy, an official statement said here.

Obama will on Wednesday announce a swift six-month surge of 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan but also define an ‘end-game’ to the gruelling eight-year war, officials in Washington have said.

Obama ‘mentioned the broad outlines of the policy a few hours before its launch and reaffirmed US commitment to a long-term partnership with Pakistan for security and stability,’ said the Pakistan government statement.

Details of the conversation were also released the White House press secretary:‘The (US) President recognized the profound sacrifices Pakistan has made in its efforts to combat extremists in its northwest and emphasized that our goal is to defeat al-Qaida and to ensure stability in the region.’

‘The two presidents agreed that the close partnership between Pakistan and the United States is vital to success, and President Obama promised to continue to assist Pakistan in its efforts against extremists,’ it added.

The president’s speech, which will also move forward US strategy in Pakistan, will be closely watched by foreign governments weighing US intent and Obama is also expected to ask Nato partners for more troops.

Top advisers said Obama will tell Afghanistan and Pakistan that the United States cannot stay forever but also offer an assurance that Washington will not abandon them.

Obama aides have said the president will set clear expectations for the Afghan government, in improving security and cracking down on corruption.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of Obama’s nationwide address, said that the president would insist on establishing a ‘back-end’ to the new deployment.

The president had decided that plans for a slower ramp up of extra US troops would not work, so he ordered a much swifter deployment, the official said.

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Pakistani warplanes strike Taliban's Waziristan redoubt

Fight the Taliban To the End? I hope Zardari really means it , that is going to be a long nasty road ! The end result will be worth it though!

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes struck a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Saturday, hours after President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to wage war against militancy "to the end."

U.S. officials, thankful that their nuclear-armed ally has gone on the offensive to stop the Taliban tide sweeping across the northwest, said they believed an operation had begun against Mehsud's forces in the South Waziristan, at the southeast extremity of the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

"We will continue this war to the end," Zardari said in a televised address to the nation broadcast in the early hours of Saturday morning.

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Pakistan's Zardari urges support to stabilise country

This guy Can't be serious ?

TOKYO (Reuters) - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday called for the support of the international community in stabilizing Pakistan and said his government would do its part in the fight against terrorism.

"We are willing to fight, despite the fact that I lost the mother of my children," Zardari told a gathering of allies in Tokyo.

"I have taken up the challenge ... to lead Pakistan out of this difficult time, and ... with all humility ask the world to fight this challenge." Pakistan hopes a meeting of aid donors later in the day with many of the same participants including Japan, the United States and the European Union, will pledge $4 billion to fund efforts on poverty alleviation, education and health.

The international community is worried that an economic meltdown in Pakistan, propped up with a $7.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund over two years, could fan popular support for al Qaeda and other militant groups.

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Pakistan defuses crisis, agrees to restore judge

Reinstating Justice Chaudry may be a good thing in some ways but it really puts President Zardari on the spot . Zardari looks a lot weaker today after giving into more opposition pressure , First the Taliban , and now Lawyers , Both very bad people to deal with !

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's government agreed on Monday to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as chief justice in a surprise move to defuse a crisis and end agitation by lawyers and activists that had threatened to turn into violent confrontation.

Chaudhry's reinstatement will cool tension but friction is likely to persist between President Asif Ali Zardari, who analysts say has been weakened by the controversy over the judge, and his emboldened rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

"It's the first time in the history of Pakistan that a movement launched by the middle class has proved successful," said retired judge Tariq Mehmud, a leader of the lawyers.

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Pakistan seeks way out of crisis, detentions multiply

Turmoil in Pakistan ! How fitting , President Zardari is quickly finding out what appeasement is all about... losing control !

ISLAMABAD, March 13 (Reuters) - Pakistan's year-old civilian government sought a compromise to appease opposition leaders and a lawyers movement on Friday as police detained hundreds of activists in a bid to stifle a nationwide protest.

A protest by lawyers and opposition parties for an independent judiciary threatens to bring political turmoil and comes as President Asif Ali Zardari's government is struggling to check rising Islamist militancy and to revive a sinking economy.

Black-suited lawyers and flag-waving opposition activists launched a so-called long march from the cities of Karachi and Quetta on Thursday, and aim to reach Islamabad on Monday.

The government has tried to foil the protest with detentions, bans on rallies, and road blocks, while at the same time looking for a way to avert a showdown that could become violent.

Under a compromise Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is pushing, Zardari has agreed to yield ground to opposition demands, according to a presidential aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The protesters are demanding the reinstatement of former Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was dismissed by former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf in 2007.

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Zardari has refused to reinstate the judge, seeing him as a threat to his own position, but the presidential aide said under the proposed compromise a constitutional court and an appellate court would be set up and Chaudhry would head one.

Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, has backed the lawyers, putting him into open confrontation with Zardari.

"We still believe there is a way out, we still believe that the elected prime minister of Pakistan should play his role," Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, a senior leader in Sharif's party, told reporters in Islamabad.

"We even believe that options and space are available for Mr. Zardari to re-think, to come back from the brink," he said.

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Zardari looking to hold peace talks with Pakistani taliban

Because the previous peace deals with the taliban worked out so well...AKI

Karachi, 20 Jan. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari met a key leader of one of the country's most powerful religious parties on Tuesday in what sources say is a bid to seek reconciliation with militants in the tribal areas. Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who heads his own faction of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam party, met Zardari as militants released a video CD featuring messages from teenage suicide bombers before their attacks.

Sources said that Zardari was looking for Maulana Fazlur Rahman to repeat what he did successfully in 2005 - action he took that resulted in peace agreements between the Pakistani Taliban and the government a year later.

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Suicide Attack Kills 35 in Pakistan

At least 35 people were killed in a suicide attack in north western Pakistan today. Guardian

The death toll in a massive suicide blast in Pakistan's north-west reached 35, officials said today, as the country prepared for the widower of the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to take over as president.[...]

Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for the chief opposition party, told Dawn News Television that Zardari's election was simply a stop along the way to restoring full democracy in Pakistan, and that the transition required giving up some of the president's powers.

Democracy is the last thing that Pakistan needs. Especially when there's "a lot of sympathy for the Taliban" in Pakistan.....

Dozens were wounded in Saturday's attack, in which an explosives-packed pick-up truck blew up at a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar in the north-west. Police said a huge amount of explosives was used in the blast, signalling that the attacker might have been aiming for a more important target.

Television footage showed a blast crater 3 feet (1 metre) deep, destroyed vehicles and pieces of debris scattered across a large area. Some buildings in a nearby market collapsed, leading civilians to dig frantically with their hands to find survivors.

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Zardari Elected President of Pakistan

It doesn't matter who's president of Pakistan. It's the ISI and the military that pull the string in Pakistan. New York Times

SLAMABAD, Pakistan — Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a controversial politician with little experience in governing, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday.

Results from voting in the two houses of Parliament, and three of four provincial assemblies, showed that Mr. Zardari had easily prevailed over his closest competitor.

The results were announced by the chief election commissioner, Qazi Muhammed Farooq. The votes from a fourth provincial assembly remained to be counted.

Mr. Zardari, 53, who spent 11 years in jail on corruption charges that were not proven, succeeds Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as president last month under the threat of impeachment.

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Rival Questions Zardari's Mental Health

Don't you have to be mentally ill to want to enter politics? Reuters

Britain's Financial Times newspaper published a report this week suggesting Zardari, who spent 11 years in prison on various charges but was never convicted, suffered from mental problems.

Bhutto's party has dismissed the report, saying Zardari was tortured while in prison and as a result had been under mental stress and had had a heart problem, but had never been mentally ill.

But rival presidential candidate Mushahid Hussain Sayed, a former government minister and top official of the main pro-Musharraf party, said the report raised questions and Zardari should withdraw.

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US Ambassador to the UN Held Secret Talks with Zardari

Mr. Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN, has held several secret talks with Zardari, the leader of the PPP Pakistan's largest political party, and possible Presidential nominee. This has angered several senior administration officials because Mr. Khalilzad is not authorized to speak to Zardari.

With an uncertain political future in Pakistan it is very foolish to appear to side with anyone at the moment. Sharif, the leader of the PML-N has just backed out of the ruling coalition party so therefore the government could dissolve within the near future.

Hypothetically speaking, imagine if the above were to happen and Sharif's PML-N party wins the majority in Pakistan's parliament. Sharif would be upset with the US for sidding with his arch rival, Zardari, and as a result may not go after the taliban as much as we would like him to. New York Times

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 in Dubai, in a session that was canceled only after Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, learned from Mr. Zardari himself that the ambassador was providing “advice and help.”

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“Can I ask what sort of ‘advice and help’ you are providing?” Mr. Boucher wrote in an angry e-mail message to Mr. Khalilzad. “What sort of channel is this? Governmental, private, personnel?” Copies of the message were sent to others at the highest levels of the State Department; the message was provided to The New York Times by an administration official who had received a copy.

Yet this isn't the first time that Mr. Khalilzad had gotten into hot water. Back in January of this year Mr. Khalilzad sat beside the Iranian foreign minister at a panel of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Bad optics, especially since Iran has threatened to wipe Israel, an American ally, off the planet and is developing nukes to reach that goal.

“Why do I have to learn about this from Asif after it’s all set up?” Mr. Boucher wrote in the Aug. 18 message, referring to the planned Dubai meeting with Mr. Zardari. “We have maintained a public line that we are not involved in the politics or the details. We are merely keeping in touch with the parties. Can I say that honestly if you’re providing ‘advice and help’? Please advise and help me so that I understand what’s going on here.”

Yes, what is going on here?

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Sharif Backs out of Ruling Coalition

Saw this coming as soon as Zardari and Sharif formed the coalition. Especially since Musharraf resigned from the Presidency. Zardari and Sharif's opposition to Musharraf was the only thing that those two had in common. The split comes amid the negotiations to reinstate the judges that Musharraf dismissed last year.

Sharif wants all of the dismissed judges to be reinstated whereas Zardari wants different judges to be picked. Mainly because Zardari fears that his amnesty for corruption might be invalidated if all the same judges are reinstated.

Sharif said that for now his party will 'play a constructive role' in the opposition. He will probably use the threat to topple the government as leverage to gain more compromises. BBC

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says his PML-N party is pulling out of the country's multi-party governing coalition.

He has been in dispute with the country's biggest party, the PPP, over who should be the next president.

The two sides also disagree on the reinstatement of judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf.

The move throws Pakistan into further turmoil at a time of economic gloom and growing threats from militants.

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Mr Sharif told journalists in Islamabad that the PPP had broken promises, in particular over the issue of the judges. "When written documents are repeatedly flouted, trust cannot remain," he said. "We cannot find a ray of hope."

However, he said his party wanted to play a constructive role in opposition, indicating that he will not try to bring down the government for now.

PPP leader Asif Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December, has announced that he will stand for the presidential election on 6 September.

Mr Sharif now says his party will put up a candidate against him.

Uncomfortable

The PPP fears that if all the judges sacked by Mr Musharraf get their jobs back, they may invalidate an amnesty that paved the way for Mr Zardari and Ms Bhutto to return to the country last year.

Related Posts:
Pakistans governing coalition is on the brink of collapse
Political vacuum in Pakistan
Musharraf resigns
Pakistan election winners not so moderate

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Pakistan Bans Taliban

After a series of deadly suicide attacks by the taliban last week, the Pakistani government has banned the terrorist group. The ban will allow the Pakistani government to freeze the taliban's bank accounts and assests.

After almost 7 years of being our ally in the war on terror has Pakistan decided to ban the taliban. But maybe now the Pakistani government is serious about defeating the taliban. Only time will tell. BBC

Pakistan has banned the Taleban militant group which has been behind many suicide attacks in the country since 2007.

The Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) will have its bank accounts and assets frozen, the interior ministry said.

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"We have banned Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan because of their involvement in a series of suicide attacks," interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said.

"They themselves have claimed responsibility of several suicide attacks and the government cannot engage in a dialogue with such people," he said.

Mr Malik said the Taleban had "created mayhem against the public life".

A ministry official told the BBC that the state bank had been asked to freeze any accounts the organisation might have.

The Pakistan Taleban is fighting for an Islamic state. They see it as their religious duty to fight the international forces currently in Afghanistan, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Islamabad says.

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Political Vacuum in Pakistan

Now with Musharraf out of the political picture in Pakistan, a power struggle between Zardari and Sharif is brewing over who should replace Musharraf as president. Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower, is leader of the largest party in the Pakistani parliament and Sharif is leader of the largest opposition party. After the parliamentary elections, they formed a coalition government. One of the main factors for keeping the coalition together was their opposition to Musharraf.

Negotiations between the two parties to determine the next president is threatening to split the coalition. On Tuesday, members of Sharif's party met with members from Zardari's party but stormed out of the meeting without talking to the media. The second largest opposition party, MQM, is supporting Zardari for president. The longer it takes to nominate a president, the more likely the cracks in the coalition will threaten to dissolve it.

NATO general,David D. McKiernan, NATO commander of Afghanistan has told AP that the political chaos in Pakistan has emboldened the taliban. While the politicians are wrangling over who will be the next president, the taliban are consildating their power in the North Western Provinces. Not only are the taliban consildating their power but they're expanding.

Once again, Pakistan is becoming the hub for mujahideen wanting to fight NATO in Afghanistan. There has been a significant increase in attacks across the Pakistani-Afghanistan border in recent months. General Mckiernan also noted that NATO forces are encountering a number of foreign fighters, for example Chechens, Turks and Middle Eastern fighters as well as "sometimes Europeans.".

Victory in Afghanistan is totally dependant on what happens to the taliban's safe havens in Pakisatn. The political landscape in Pakistan does not paint a very conforting picture that the terrorist safe havens will be dealt with.

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Zardari Will Not Impeach Musharraf

Under pressure from the US and the Pakistani army Zardari, the leader of the PPP, has agreed not impeach Musharraf. But as soon as Zardari gets a chance to impeach he will. Hindu Times

Islamabad (PTI): The ruling PPP is not moving to impeach Pervez Musharraf to avoid political instability, party Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said ahead of a planned meeting with the embattled leader amid pressure from the army and the US to develop a "working relationship" with the President.

The Pakistan People's Party wanted to resolve all issues through dialogue and did not want confrontation with anyone. "We are ready to hold talks with anyone, including (President Pervez) Musharraf, despite differences," Zardari, who is planning to meet Musharraf, said.

Though he was reluctant to explain the agenda of his proposed meeting with Musharraf, he told The News: "I am hopeful that the outcome of my meeting with Musharraf will not disappoint the people of Pakistan."

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A close aide of Zardari, however, insisted that he "will suggest to Musharraf to step down in the larger interest of Pakistan." The PPP chairman had earlier said he was not for impeaching Musharraf and wanted him to "walk away".

The PPP could gather the support of the required number of parliamentarians for Musharraf's impeachment but it did not believe in confrontation, Zardari told Express News TV adding economic and political stability is our first priority."

In reply to a question, he said there was a "working relationship" between PPP and the Presidency.

Emissaries of the US and top American Senators have met Zardari and advised him to stop attacking Musharraf and to meet him to reach some understanding on a working relationship, The News reported.

Zardari's threats to impeach Musharraf have also not gone down well with the Pakistan Army's high command and discreet messages have been sent to him to "resolve all the issues through dialogue", it said.

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