Pakistan’s political turmoil and violence have claimed a high-profile cultural victim — a centuries-old kite-flying festival that draws thousands of visitors. The Basant festival brings a springtime buzz to eastern Pakistan and its regional capital, Lahore, and officials usually relax a ban on the pastime.
An International Cricket Council (ICC) investigator has questioned banned fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar over his claims that he was offered money to throw matches, Pakistani sources said on Tuesday. Akhtar (32) was banned for five years a week ago for criticising the Pakistan Cricket Board. He later alleged that that he had refused offers of bribes to underperform.
Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers consolidated South Africa’s strong position with half-centuries after Dale Steyn sparked a sensational Indian collapse in the second Test on Thursday. The 24-year-old Steyn gave a magnificent display of fast bowling on a lively track to finish with 5-23 as India crashed to 76 all out in their first innings.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sued paceman Shoaib Akhtar for 200-million rupees (-million) on Thursday for making allegedly defamatory comments after he was banned for five years. Akhtar was banned by the PCB on Tuesday, a move that effectively ends his career after a series of disciplinary problems culminating in a public outburst against the board.
Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar said on Wednesday he was offered money to under-perform in matches in South Africa and India but rejected them for the sake of his country. Shoaib, who was banned for five years by the Pakistan Cricket Board on Tuesday for disciplinary reasons, said he was angry at the suspension.
Temperamental fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was banned for five years by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday for repeated disciplinary violations. Board chairperson Dr Nasim Ashraf told a news conference the suspension was imposed on the recommendation of the PCB disciplinary committee, and the paceman had the right to lodge an appeal.
The Bush administration is scrambling to engage with Pakistan’s new rulers as power flows from its strong ally, President Pervez Musharraf, to a powerful civilian government buoyed by anti-American sentiment. Since 2001, American officials have treasured their close relationship with Musharraf.
Suspected militants attacked an ambulance in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border on Thursday killing at least six people, including two paramilitary soldiers, a government official said. The ambulance was taking people to a health meeting when it was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Pakistan’s new prime minister was sworn in by President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday as two senior United States envoys arrived for talks aimed at shoring up Islamabad’s role in the ”war on terror”.
Pakistan’s new prime minister triggered an immediate showdown with Pervez Musharraf on Monday, ordering the release of judges detained by the president just moments after being elected. Musharraf had ordered the judges held in November amid fears they might challenge his grip on power in the nuclear-armed nation.
Islamic militants in a Pakistani border town blew up 36 tankers supplying fuel for United States and Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, wounding up to 100 people, officials said on Monday. The rebels late on Sunday destroyed the tankers that were parked in Landikotal, the main town of the troubled Khyber tribal district.
Pakistan’s Parliament prepared on Monday to elect a new prime minister as the coalition government appeared set for a confrontation with key United States ally President Pervez Musharraf. Yousuf Raza Gilani, the candidate nominated by the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, is a virtual certainty to win.
Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was ”shocked and disgusted” by controversial umpire Darrell Hair’s reinstatement, but Australia welcomed the move on Wednesday. Inzamam clashed with Hair in the forfeited Oval Test between Pakistan and England in August 2006, which led to the Australian umpire’s ban from standing in top-level matches.
Two suicide attacks killed at least 31 people and injured more than 200 in Lahore on Tuesday as suspected Islamist militants escalated their campaign of mayhem in Pakistan’s largest cities. The bombs were the latest in a string of attacks against military and police targets in Lahore, the previously peaceful capital of Punjab province.
Two bombs exploded in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, one outside a government office, killing at least 20 people, police and officials said. Well over 500 people have been killed in Pakistan this year in a campaign of suicide bombings, which intensified after troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in July.
Australia have scrapped their upcoming cricket tour to Pakistan over security fears, their cricket boards said in a statement on Tuesday, after bombs killed 20 people in the eastern city of Lahore. ”I can confirm they have conveyed to us that they have cancelled the tour,” Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Shafqat Nagmi said.
Pakistan’s two major opposition leaders signed a formal declaration Sunday on forming a coalition government, and urged President Pervez Musharraf to convene Parliament without delay. Asif Ali Zardari, widowed husband of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif signed the agreement at a news conference after a fresh round of coalition talks.
Pakistani tribesmen on Monday buried the last of the 43 people killed in a suicide bomb attack at a meeting of tribal elders discussing how to tackle al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
At least 30 people were killed and up to 40 injured when a suicide bomber attacked a traditional tribal meeting in north-western Pakistan on Sunday, officials said. Pakistan is in the middle of a wave of violence blamed on al Qaeda-linked militants based in tribal lands on the Afghan border and there have been three suicide attacks in as many days.
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/ 29 February 2008
A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people at a funeral of a policeman in the Swat district of Pakistan, days after the Pakistan army said it had begun to bring the mountainous region under control. Another suicide bomber rammed his car into a vehicle carrying paramilitary forces in the north-western tribal region, killing one civilian and wounding 17 others.
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/ 26 February 2008
Pakistani internet service providers may have inadvertently blocked the popular YouTube website across the world on the weekend when they restricted local access to the site, a telecommunications official said. YouTube said on Monday that many users around the world could not access the site for about two hours.
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/ 20 February 2008
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf rejected demands to quit on Wednesday and called for a ”harmonious coalition” as victorious opposition parties mulled a grouping that could force the key United States ally from power. Musharraf was making his first official comments since Monday’s crucial parliamentary vote.
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/ 20 February 2008
The party of assassinated former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto began stitching together a coalition on Wednesday that could spell the end for President Pervez Musharraf, after winning the most seats in a general election. The United States welcomed the vote as ”a step toward the full restoration of democracy”.
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/ 18 February 2008
Vote counting got under way on Monday after a lacklustre turnout in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections, which passed off relatively peacefully despite fears of sabotage by Islamic militants. With his future hanging in the balance, President Pervez Musharraf resolved to work with the new civilian government.
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/ 18 February 2008
Fears of violence kept many Pakistanis away from the polls on Monday with 80 000 troops backing up police to watch over a vote that could choose a Parliament set on driving President Pervez Musharraf from office. Results are expected to start emerging by midnight and trends should be clear on Tuesday morning.
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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 February 2008
Pakistani security forces wounded and captured a prominent Taliban commander on Monday near the border area with Afghanistan. Mullah Mansour Dadullah took over as commander of Taliban forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand after his brother, Mullah Dadullah, was killed by British forces in May.
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/ 9 February 2008
To chants of ”Democracy is the best revenge”, tens of thousands of Benazir Bhutto’s followers rallied in southern Pakistan on Saturday as her party relaunched an election campaign derailed by her assassination. About 2Â 000 police and hundreds of private armed security guards from Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party secured the venue.
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/ 7 February 2008
Pakistani police have arrested two more suspects in connection with the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the interior minister said on Thursday. Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack on December 27 as she was coming out of an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi.
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/ 7 February 2008
Tens of thousands of people beat their chests in anguish at Benazir Bhutto’s tomb on Thursday as they marked the end of 40 days of mourning for the slain opposition leader. The solemn Muslim ceremonies at the family mausoleum in southern Pakistan marked the start of campaigning by her Pakistan People’s Party for elections on February 18.
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/ 6 February 2008
Pakistani Taliban fighters announced a ceasefire on Wednesday after months of clashes with security forces and suicide attacks across the north-west of the country. But a military spokesperson said that while fighting had died down no truce had been agreed.