TEHRAN, Feb 27: President Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decided here on Wednesday to vigorously pursue the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project as well as other major projects between the two countries.

According to the president’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, the decision was taken during two rounds of meetings, one at the delegation level and the other one-to-one. They underscored the need to take full advantage of each other’s resources and expertise...

By S. Raza Hassan

KARACHI, Feb 27: A lieutenant commander of the Pakistan Navy was injured in a targeted attack in Keamari area of the city on Wednesday morning.

S. Azeem Haider Kazmi was the second naval officer to have been targeted in less than a month...

By Our Correspondent

MIRAMSHAH, Feb 27: Malak Mumtaz Khan, a renowned journalist of the tribal areas and president of the Miramshah Press Club, was shot dead in North Waziristan on Wednesday.

According to sources, Malak Mumtaz, 45, was going home from Miramshah bazaar in his car when men in another car opened fire on him near his Miramshah Kalley village at about 4pm. He suffered bullet wounds to his head and chest and died on the spot...

By Khawar Ghumman

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Officially initiating the much-talked about consultation process of selecting a caretaker premier, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf wrote on Wednesday a letter to Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, seeking two names for the job to hold free and fair elections.

In the letter released by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Mr Ashraf also categorically stated that the National Assembly would be dissolved only after completing its five-year constitutional term on March 16...

By Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has worked out an average of four per cent increase in the prices of all petroleum products with effect from Thursday midnight, but the government wants the last price surge of its tenure to be even higher.

“The pricing of petroleum products is turning out to be a major controversy at the fag end of the PPP government’s tenure,” said a senior government official...

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI, Feb 27: Efforts made by President Asif Ali Zardari to persuade MQM chief Altaf Hussain to let Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan continue working as governor of Sindh bore fruit when Dr Ibad was advised by his leader on Wednesday to “take back his resignation and resume responsibilities for the sake of peace and stability in Sindh”.

The governor left for Dubai about a week ago after the MQM parted ways with the PPP government at the Centre and in Sindh...

By Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider

WASHINGTON, Feb 27: Chuck Hagel was sworn in as US Defence Secretary on Wednesday, a day after the Senate confirmed him with a simple majority of 58 to 41 votes.

Mr Hagel, who arrived at the Pentagon 40 minutes late because of Washington’s morning traffic, was sworn in by his Director of Administration and Management Michael L. Rhodes...

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Attorney General Irfan Qadir withdrew on Wednesday a reply submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Intelligence Bureau in a case about misappropriation of IB funds in which the government had held that the court could not lay its hands on information relating to internal working of the bureau.

The reply was withdrawn after a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry objected to the contents of the reply signed by the attorney general instead of IB Director General Akhtar Hussain Gorchani...