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/ 16 February 2008
Pakistani politicians were winding up campaigns on Saturday for a general election that is meant to complete a transition to civilian rule but has been overshadowed by fear of violence and accusations of rigging. The elections on Monday are for a new Parliament and provincial assemblies and while President Pervez Musharraf is not taking part, the vote could spell trouble for the important United States ally.
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/ 16 February 2008
A suicide car bomb outside a Pakistani election candidate’s office killed 37 people in the violent north-west on Saturday, the last day of campaigning for an election meant to complete a transition to civilian rule. Separately, police in the south of the country said they had foiled another attack planned for polling day on Monday.
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/ 12 January 2008
A suicide bomb attack that killed 19 people in Lahore, which had been a haven from violence, demonstrates an intensifying show-down with militants at a time when Pakistan is in a volatile political flux. The blast in the country’s political nerve centre on Thursday carried an ominous message ahead of February’s national election.
Pakistan’s opposition parties demanded better security on Thursday as the nation prepared for a lengthy campaign ahead of February 18 elections, a week after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The country’s main political parties confirmed they would resume the race to restore democracy but said the government must ensure candidates are protected.
Pakistan’s general election has been delayed until February 18 because of unrest sparked by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the chief election commissioner announced on Wednesday. ”In the light of the circumstances, the new date for general elections is February 18 2008 instead of January 8,” chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq said.
Pakistan election officials were Wednesday poised to announce the date of crucial polls, thrown into chaos in the wake of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. A few hours later President Pervez Musharraf is to address the nation for the first time since her slaying at a campaign rally last week.
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/ 31 December 2007
Pakistan’s elections will be delayed by at least four weeks due to mass unrest after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a Cabinet official said on Monday. Other government and election officials confirmed that the January 8 polls would be postponed. Bhutto’s party rejected any delay.
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/ 30 December 2007
The son of slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was chosen on Sunday to take the mantle of her party and immediately vowed to keep up what he called her struggle for democracy. At an emotional news conference where his father was named co-chair of the Pakistan People’s Party, 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto said he was ready to lead.
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/ 30 December 2007
Pakistan’s political future hung in the balance on Sunday with Benazir Bhutto’s party deciding whether to pull out of planned elections amid an acrimonious dispute over how she was killed. Her husband and top party officials were also expected to name a successor to Bhutto as head of the country’s largest opposition party.
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/ 29 December 2007
Benazir Bhutto’s party challenged official versions of the opposition leader’s assassination and accused the government on Saturday of trying to cover up failures just days before planned elections. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda-linked militants denied being behind the killing of the 54-year-old former prime minister.
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/ 29 December 2007
Pakistan was on Saturday gripped by division and uncertainty following the burial of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as her supporters angrily rejected a government explanation of her death. Bhutto died on Thursday shortly after a suicide attack targeting her vehicle at a campaign rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi.
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/ 28 December 2007
Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest next to her father in the family mausoleum on Friday after the opposition leader’s assassination plunged Pakistan into crisis and triggered violent protests across her native Sindh province. Thousands of mourners wept as Bhutto was carried from her ancestral home in Sindh to the mausoleum.
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/ 28 December 2007
Pakistan pointed a finger on Friday at al-Qaeda for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, as her body was taken to her ancestral home for burial and anger at her death erupted into deadly unrest. The scale of the violence left the nuclear-armed Muslim nation shell-shocked, triggering alarm around the world.
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/ 28 December 2007
The body of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was taken to her family village for burial on Friday, a day after her assassination plunged the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history. Her killing after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi triggered a wave of violence.
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/ 27 December 2007
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, putting January 8 polls in doubt and sparking anger in her native Sindh province. State media and her party confirmed Bhutto’s death from a gun and bomb attack. ”She has been martyred,” said party official Rehman Malik.
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/ 27 December 2007
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, slain in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, knew very well the risks she ran when she decided to wage a public campaign for the restoration of democracy. Hours after she returned home in October after eight years of self-imposed exile, a suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack targeting her motorcade.
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/ 23 December 2007
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said on Sunday some religious schools were turning children into killers. Speaking to about 25 000 supporters near her ancestral home in the southern town of Larkana, she also renewed accusations the government had done nothing to stop militant violence.
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/ 8 December 2007
Three supporters of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto were killed on Saturday when gunmen attacked her party’s office in a town in south-western Pakistan, police said, in the first reported deaths in the current election campaign. Police had no immediate information about the motive for the attack.
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/ 7 December 2007
Pakistan’s two main opposition leaders have failed to overcome key differences preventing them forging a united front ahead of general elections in January, party officials said on Friday. Former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif will now have to meet again next week to try to hammer out an agreement, their parties said.
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/ 3 December 2007
Pakistani authorities on Monday banned former premier Nawaz Sharif from standing in next month’s general election, further damaging the credibility of a vote that the opposition may yet boycott. The ruling came as Sharif prepared to hold crunch talks with fellow opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
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/ 29 November 2007
President Pervez Musharraf promised on Thursday to lift Pakistan’s state of emergency on December 16, making a long-awaited gesture of reconciliation hours after being sworn in as a civilian leader. Addressing the nation on television, Musharraf said he would also restore the Constitution, which was suspended when he declared emergency rule on November 3.
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/ 29 November 2007
Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf was sworn in as president for a second term on Thursday, but this time as a civilian and without his army uniform to protect him from pressure to end emergency rule. Musharraf took the oath for another five years in office from the newly installed chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
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/ 28 November 2007
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf stepped down as army chief on Wednesday and will be sworn in as a civilian leader for a second five-year term on Thursday. Musharraf passed the baton of command to his hand-picked successor, General Ashfaq Kayani, at a ceremony at army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
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/ 27 November 2007
Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf said farewell to military colleagues on Tuesday as he prepared to become a civilian president ahead of January’s general election. Musharraf visited Joint Staff headquarters in Rawalpindi a day before he steps down as army chief to fulfil one of the long-held demands of his political rivals and Western allies.
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/ 26 November 2007
Pakistan’s ex-premier Nawaz Sharif plotted tactics with key aides on Monday as he sought to capitalise on his hero’s welcome home from exile to spur opposition to President Pervez Musharraf. Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a coup in 1999, was due to file his nomination papers for general elections, despite warning his party may end up boycotting the January 8 vote.
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/ 24 November 2007
Twin suicide blasts killed at least 15 people on Saturday in the Pakistani garrison town of Rawalpindi adjoining Islamabad, the military said, including 13 aboard a Defence Ministry bus. A suicide bomber rammed a car into the back of the bus outside an intelligence-service office.
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/ 20 November 2007
Pakistan has freed 3 400 people detained under a state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf and will soon release the remaining 2 000, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. That would leave ”very few” detainees facing criminal charges, a ministry spokesperson said.
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/ 19 November 2007
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday rubber-stamped President Pervez Musharraf’s contested re-election victory in October, after he purged the court of hostile judges. ”Five petitions have been dismissed. One is pending and it will be heard on Thursday,” said the Attorney General Malik Qayyum.
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/ 16 November 2007
Pakistan freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from house arrest early on Friday, hours after a caretaker prime minister was appointed in a first step towards a national election. Jail officials left the residence in the eastern city of Lahore where Bhutto has been held to prevent her from leading a pro-democracy rally.
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/ 14 November 2007
Pakistani opposition parties tried to forge a united front on Wednesday against military President Pervez Musharraf who insisted a state of emergency was necessary for fair elections. United States ally Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared emergency rule in nuclear-armed Pakistan on November 3.
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/ 14 November 2007
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is trying to forge an alliance with Islamists and other opposition parties to launch a campaign to force military president Pervez Musharraf from power. Musharraf plunged the nuclear-armed country into crisis on November 3 when he declared emergency rule.
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/ 12 November 2007
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will not be allowed to hold a protest procession across Pakistan because it would violate a ban on political rallies imposed under the current state of emergency, a government spokesperson said on Monday. Bhutto was due to leave the eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday morning for the capital, Islamabad.