Pak politics boils over: Nawaz barred from polls, brother ousted

Protests erupted across Pakistan today after the Supreme Court barred opposition PML-N chief and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from contesting polls and declared the election of his brother Shahbaz, chief minister of Punjab province, as null and void, effectively dismissing him and setting the stage for renewed political confrontation in a country grappling with rising militancy.

Describing the verdict as a “diktat”, Sharif accused President Asif Ali Zardari of hatching a conspiracy against him and challenged him to hold a referendum on the judgment. Within hours of the ruling, Zardari imposed Governor’s rule in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, for a period of two months.

Supporters of the Sharifs took to the streets in hundreds, grappling with police and tearing down Zardari banners and posters.

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Obama will want ISI under civilian control: Kerry in Delhi

With barely a month left for US President-elect Barack Obama to officially enter White House, influential Democrat Senator and likely next head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry today made it clear that the Obama Administration will ask the Pakistan government to bring the ISI firmly under civilian control.

When it was pointed out that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had to roll back an earlier decision to place the ISI under the Interior Minister, Kerry said this was a “young government” but was well intentioned and would make the change in the days ahead. The issue is being linked with the aid package being worked out for Pakistan.

Kerry, who hopes to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow, will be briefing Obama once he returns from his trip that includes a stopover in Islamabad where he will hold talks with Zardari.

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Terrorists are at work in Jammu and Kashmir, India is not a threat: Zardari

Declaring that India is not a “threat” to his country, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has described the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir as “terrorists”, the first such admission by any top Pakistani leader.

“India has never been a threat to Pakistan. I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad,” Zardari told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.

He spoke of the militant groups operating in Kashmir as “terrorists,” the paper said noting that former President Pervez Musharraf would more likely have called them “freedom fighters.”

Indicating a major shift in Pakistan’s well known position, Zardari had, as chief of Pakistan People’s Party, said in March that the ties between two countries should not be held “hostage” to the Kashmir issue, which should be left for future generations to decide, raising hackles at home.

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