By Habib Khan Ghori

KARACHI, Feb 26: The Pakistan Muslim League-N, PML-F and National People’s Party have agreed in principle to forge an electoral alliance that could include other political, religious and nationalist parties, and prepare a joint strategy to field one-to-one candidates in the coming general election against the ruling coalition.

The decision was announced by PML-N president Nawaz Sharif and PML-F chief Pir Pagara after an over two-hour meeting of leaders of the three parties at the Kingri House on Tuesday...

By Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: Eighteen days before the end of its term, the government approved on Tuesday a record Rs100 billion bailout package for the ever-bleeding Pakistan International Airlines.

A meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet, its second in four days, also decided to increase commission for dealers and margins on sale of high-speed diesel...

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: President Asif Ali Zardari will visit Tehran on Wednesday to finalise a loan agreement for the multi-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.

“President Zardari will undertake a two-day official visit to Iran on Wednesday (today),” the president’s spokesman said on Tuesday...

By Mohammad Jamal Hoti

MARDAN, Feb 26: Gunmen killed a police constable deployed to provide security to health workers administering polio vaccines to children in Khao area of Ghala Dhere union council on Tuesday.

Police and sources said 24-year-old constable Said Mohammad came under attack when he was standing outside a house and a health worker, Farida Begum, was administering vaccines to children inside the house...

By Ahmad Fraz Khan

LAHORE, Feb 26: The power planners were still struggling on Tuesday — 48 hours after a countrywide breakdown — to fully restore supplies, as a fuel and generation crunch hindered their efforts.

“The conditions (high demand and lower generation) that led to the breakdown on Sunday continue, demanding heightened vigilance by the planners at each tier of generation, transmission and distribution,” an official of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) said...

WASHINGTON: Feb 26: The US-led military coalition in Afghanistan incorrectly reported a decline in Taliban attacks last year, and officials said on Tuesday that there was actually no change in the number of attacks on international troops from 2011 to 2012.

The corrected numbers — from the original reports of a 7 per cent decline to one of no change — could undercut the narrative promoted by the international coalition and the Obama administration of an insurgency in steep decline...

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: Finance Minister Saleem H. Mandviwalla said here on Tuesday that Pakistan had never faced bankruptcy in the past nor would it in future. “We should not take rumour-mongering seriously.”

He was responding to a question at his first press conference as the fifth finance minister in as many years. He said the process of budget preparation was continuing and the budget team was making good progress...

By Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: Leaders of the Shia Hazara community said in the Supreme Court on Tuesday that any knee-jerk reaction by the authorities in Balochistan could cause segregation of communities which might further fan sectarian violence in the country.

“We are not interested in taking revenge but want that culprits involved in the gruesome Hazara Town bombing be sternly dealt with in accordance with the law,” former senator Abbas Kumaili told a three-judge bench which rejected as unsatisfactory a report submitted by the Balochistan government on measures taken to ensure peace in Quetta...