President Obama introduced his new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan yesterday with a threat assessment familiar from the Bush administration. “The terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks,” he said, are continuing to devise plots designed to “kill as many of our people as they…
More: continued here
KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company has pressed government to provide economic assistance for the restoration of as many as 3000 sacked employees.The Advisor Petroleum Dr. Asim Hussain said this while talking to Geo news on Friday.He said the company earned as much as Rs.70,000,000 profit while the 1.5 billion rupees are required for the restoration of employees and for the clearance of their dues.A committee, in this context constituted by PM Gilani, is in consultation with the authorities of company and hopefully will soon come up with some applicable recommendations. It is worth mentioning that a Presidential ordinance was passed to reappoint the 3000 employees who were sacked in 90s.
More: continued here
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Friday unveiled its new strategy for defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan, but it offered few new options for dealing with Pakistan, which experts say has become a much more significant terrorist haven.
More: continued here
WASHINGTON: The United States is trying to put Afghanistan and Pakistan in a better position to fight terrorists, Richard Boucher, Assistant State Secretary for South Asian Affairs, told a press conference on Friday. He said US is not pondering to extend military strikes in the areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.Asked about the relationship between U.S. troops withdrawal from Iraq and additional American soldiers being sent to Afghanistan, Boucher said that “our goal is not to move troops from one place to another.” Instead, he said, “Our goal is to make the effort necessary to help Afghanistan and Pakistan to solve problems and put them in the position where they can take care of their own countries.” The 4,000 U.S. troops to be sent to Afghanistan are trainers. Their goals are “to build Afghan forces to where they can take the lead in their own security,” said Boucher. On the effort to fight Taliban and Al-Qaeda activities along Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Boucher said that the United States and its NATO allied troops deployed in Afghanistan are operating within Afghan territories while Pakistanis, a U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, are operating in their side. “We operate differently on either side of the border.”"We understand that they (Pakistanis) don”t want American forces inside Pakistan. We”ll respect that, but at the same time we want to make sure we are supporting properly,” he noted.
More: continued here
BERLIN: U.S. President Barack Obama’’s new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan was met with almost universal approval in Europe, but nations there will have to contribute a lot more to actually make it work.Obama on Friday announced his new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, with its key goal to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” al-Qaida by destroying its safe haven in the region.The strategy includes sending 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan “later this spring,” on top of the 17,000 Obama has already added to the region. But the new plan is much more than just boosting personnel.”It represents a major change from the top-down neo-conservative approach,” said John Hulsman, a Berlin-based trans-Atlantic expert who is president and co-founder of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, a foreign policy consulting firm. “The key to it is: America will work with the locals, be it inside or around Afghanistan. I think that finally, we see a real strategy forming that actually has a chance of succeeding.”The plan has been met with almost universal approval in Europe. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday it came very close to “European ideas” about the look of the future mission in Afghanistan, and several other officials lauded the plan’’s cooperational focus.Obama wants to win over regional powers — including Iran, India, Russia and China — to stabilize Afghanistan. The president’’s special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, is expected to hold frequent bilateral meetings with authorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”They are becoming genuine stakeholders in the rebuilding and stabilization process in Afghanistan,” Hulsman told a news agency in a telephone interview Friday.Pakistan has been a source of concern for quite some time, with Obama stating that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the world’’s two most sought-after terrorists, are “almost certainly” hiding in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.
More: continued here
LAHORE: Test cricketer Muhammad Yousuf and the skipper of national team Younis Khan have met here with the Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ejaz Butt on Friday.Chairman PCB hinted at rejoining of Muhammad Yousuf to Pakistan cricket team but said there still lie some matters to be resolved first.The meeting lasted for 30 minutes at PCB headquarters Gaddafi Stadium here. Yousuf said during his subsequent chat with media that he was not authorized to speak to media while Ejaz Butt said that the meeting was just a casual one and Yousuf, like other players, wish to join national team soon.
More: continued here
Pakistan News
The United States has indications that elements of Pakistan’s ISI military intelligence agency provide support to Taliban or al Qaeda militants, senior U.S. military officers said on Friday.
More: continued here
US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the center of the fight against Al-Qaeda in unveiling a new strategy to commit thousands more troops and billions of dollars to the Afghan war.
More: continued here
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 27 — A suicide bomber detonated his explosives Friday in a crowded mosque in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 50 people and leaving more bodies buried in the rubble of the building, officials said.
More: continued here
LAHORE: Pakistan captain Younis Khan has refused to dictate to the Pakistan Cricket Board curators on what type of pitches should be prepared in Abu D
More: continued here
Pakistan News