By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, March 7: The Foreign Office said on Thursday that Pakistan expected the United States would understand the country’s energy requirements.

“We know about their concerns but we expect and hope that all our friends, including the US, will show more understanding on this issue,” Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan said at the weekly media briefing while talking about the groundbreaking ceremony of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project scheduled for March 11...

By Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD, March 7: In its farewell meeting on Thursday, the cabinet increased natural gas tariff by about Rs5.50 per unit, provided a subsidy of Rs16 billion on tube-wells and extended provincial quotas in federal jobs for another 20 years.

Presided over by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, the cabinet lifted a ban on import of prohibited and non-prohibited bore weapons and approved recommendations of a ministerial committee on anti-corruption law under which assets of civil servants, bureaucrats, army officers and judges and their dependents would be subject to scrutiny. Details of the law were not made public...

NEW DELHI, March 7: Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid will host a lunch in Jaipur for Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf during his one-day private visit on Saturday but there will be no “substantive” discussions, Press Trust of India (PTI) said, quoting the Indian foreign ministry spokesman on Thursday.

“Mr Khurshid will host a lunch for him (PM) at a local hotel in Jaipur following which Pakistan prime minister will depart for Ajmer. Upon completion of prayers at Ajmer, the visiting prime minister will return to Jaipur the same evening and take a special flight back to Islamabad,” PTI quoted the spokesman as saying...

By Amjad Mahmood

LAHORE, March 7: The Pakistan Muslim League-N announced here on Thursday its election manifesto which focuses on revival of economy and resolution of energy crisis.

The 100-plus page document containing 32 concrete targets unveiled by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif at a press conference proposes right to food as a fundamental right through a constitutional amendment and parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies to resolve the issue of missing persons and curb misuse of authority...

By Iftikhar A Khan

ISLAMABAD, March 7: The fate of wide-ranging changes in nomination forms for poll candidates proposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan hangs in the balance as the Ministry of Law has yet to send them to the president for approval.

Sources told Dawn that Law Minister Farooq H. Naek had expressed reservations over some clauses of the proposed amendments during his meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim on Thursday. He was of the opinion that certain clauses proposed in declarations to be submitted by candidates along with their nomination papers were already part of the law...

By Our Correspondent

WASHINGTON, March 7: The United States urged Pakistan on Thursday not to go in the direction that leads to sanctions as Islamabad prepares to conclude a gas pipeline deal with Iran.

Asked to comment on the issue, US State Department’s spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the United States had already made it clear that the proposed pipeline would violate US sanctions. “We have made it absolutely clear to our Pakistan counterparts” that the proposed deal will violate US sanction laws, Ms Nuland said...

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI, March 7: Pakistan Rangers personnel launched a ‘targeted-operation’ in the PPP stronghold of Lyari hours after bullet-riddled bodies of its two intelligence officials were found on Thursday.

The operation triggered violent protests in the area and angered the PPP which took it as a move to damage the party’s credibility in its stronghold weeks before the general elections...

By Kalbe Ali

ISLAMABAD, March 7: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has imposed a penalty of Rs25 million on five institutions for advertising un-accredited engineering programmes.

In its order, a CCP bench comprising chairperson Rahat Kaunain Hassan and members Abdul Ghaffar and Dr Shahzad Ansar said the terms “accredited by PEC” implied that an engineering programme had effectively met the norms and procedures prescribed by the Pakistan Engineering Council and that only the students possessing degrees of accredited programmes could get registered with the PEC as engineers...

By Raja Asghar

ISLAMABAD, March 7: In its waning days, the National Assembly seemed left with little zeal to give more seats to non-Muslim minorities as it failed to take up an enabling constitution amendment on Thursday that had been on its agenda for two weeks.

It was no surprise that Law Minister Farooq H. Naek was found absent from his seat when house Speaker Fehmida Mirza called for taking up the Constitution (Twenty-third Amendment) Bill because the 342-seat house did have at least 228 supporters, or two-thirds of its membership, required to pass a constitution amendment...

KALAYA, March 7: Thirteen militants and one soldier were killed in a blast and clashes in Orakzai tribal region on Thursday.

Sources said a remote-controlled explosive device placed by militants in Mamozai tehsil went off when a security convoy was patrolling the area. A soldier was killed and three other security men were injured...