Urdu Articles & Columns

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama sees the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO raid as a tragedy, the White House said Monday, but argued that crisis-wracked US-Pakistani ties were vital to both sides. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama believed Saturday’s attack which threw US-Pakistani ties into turmoil was “a tragedy,” adding that “we mourn those brave Pakistani service members that lost their lives.” “We take this matter very seriously,” said Carney, adding that two inquiries by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and US Central Command would examine what took place. “As for our relationship with Pakistan, it continues to be an important cooperative relationship that is also very...

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KARACHI: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said the government would consider the country’s sovereignty first and then the Bonn Conference, Geo News reported Wednesday.He was speaking to media after inaugurating the UAE Expo 2011 at Expo Centre here. Gilani said that a deadline of December 11 had been given to Nato forces to vacate Shamsi Air Base. PM Gilani said that Afghan President Hamid Karzai called and said that the conference is related to Afghanistan but it will be incomplete without Pakistan’s presence. The prime minister told Karzai that Afghan land was being used against Pakistan and that is why Pakistan will not participate in the Bonn Conference. On this, the Afghan president said that the attack carried out by US and...

ISLAMABAD: The United States is preparing to accede to Pakistani demands that it vacate a remote air base in Pakistan used for drone flights, but the move is not expected to have a significant impact on operations against militants, U.S. government sources say. Washington is treading lightly not to aggravate an already fragile relationship that was bruised further by a NATO attack on a Pakistani military outpost last weekend that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghanistan border. Pakistan demanded that the United States leave the Shamsi Air Base within 15 days and blocked ground supply routes through Pakistan to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Three sources, who declined to be identified because of the issue’s sensitivity, said U.S...

BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she regretted Pakistan’s decision to boycott next week’s international conference on Afghanistan but hoped to secure Islamabad’s cooperation in future. “Nothing will be gained by turning our backs on mutually beneficial cooperation. Frankly it is regrettable that Pakistan has decided not to attend the conference in Bonn,” Clinton told a news conference in South Korea. Pakistan pulled out of the conference on the future of Afghanistan on Tuesday in reaction to a cross-border attack by NATO that killed 24 of its soldiers and plunged US-Pakistani relations deeper into crisis. “I would express regret and hope that perhaps there can be a follow-up way that we can...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s nuclear programme has made some extraordinary progress by developing one of the world’s smartest nuclear tactical devices, it has been learnt. According to a western diplomat, the former dictator and the then President General Pervez Musharraf, during one of his meetings with US officials, had deemed it proper to convey it to the Americans what Pakistan possessed and how the country’s nuclear scientists had secured the defence of Pakistan. The diplomatic source said that New Delhi also knows what Pakistan has produced and what is really unmatched. The Indians got this source said and believed that Musharraf intentionally conveyed this to the Americans so that the country is not treated by the US like Afghanistan...

LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday called Iran a “disgrace” and warned of serious consequences after protesters stormed Britain’s embassy in Tehran. “The attack on the British Embassy in Tehran today was outrageous and indefensible,” said Cameron in a statement. “The failure of the Iranian government to defend British staff and property was a disgrace,” he added. “We hold the Iranian government responsible.” The prime minister earlier chaired a meeting of COBRA, Britain’s security response committee, after it emerged that its two compounds had been attacked. “The Iranian government must recognise that there will be serious consequences for failing to protect our staff,” vowed Cameron. “We will consider what these measures...

LONDON: British Pakistani community leaders extended support to Lord Nazir Ahmed here after the AJK cabinet passed resolution declaring him ‘persona non grata’ and revoking his citizenship. Community leaders from all parties and parts of UK came to London for a press conference with Lord Ahmed and expressed solidarity with him and warned the AJK government of serious consequences if an apology was not offered to Lord Ahmed, a tireless campaigner for the cause of Kashmir and Chairman of the All Parties Parliamentary Group on Kashmir in the British parliament. Lord Ahmed revealed that Interior Minister Rehman Malik had called him to stop liaising with Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and not to accompany him to the Scotland Yard meeting. “Rehman Malik...

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LONDON: Expressing his sympathy for the families of Pakistani soldiers killed by a Nov 26 airstrike on the border with Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told British reporters here today that NATO and Pakistani officials have been working hard to improve strained relations. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said the incident constitutes “a very challenging issue on both sides.” “[The Pakistani people] have reason to be furious, because they have 24 soldiers dead, and the ordnance that killed them was the ordnance of a partner,” the chairman said. “But I’d certainly like to enlist their patience to find out what happened and to try to work through this.” Dempsey said he called Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez...