Backed by hundreds of police officers, the government placed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto under house arrest today to prevent a protest against President Pervez Musharraf, escalating a war of nerves before a deadline later this week for Musharraf to step down as army chief.

It was the second time in less than a week that the Pakistani president's biggest rival has been confined to a home. She vowed to press ahead with an automobile caravan from this eastern city to Islamabad, the capital, to increase the pressure on Musharraf to rescind the emergency rule he... read more >>>

An embattled President Musharraf tried to defuse Pakistan’s worsening political crisis by promising to hold general elections in January.

Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister held briefly under house arrest on Friday, described the move as... read more >>>

Pakistan police baton-charged lawyers protesting against President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule and continued to detain his opponents on Monday, despite sharp criticism from ally Washington of the clampdown.

Declaring an emergency on Saturday, General Musharraf cited spiralling militancy and hostile judges to justify his action and imposed reporting curbs on the media in a bid to stop... read more >>>

NBC News' Andrea Mitchell speaks with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, from her home in Karachi, Pakistan. Bhutto had just arrived in Pakistan after the imposition of martial law by President Pervez Musharraf.

MITCHELL: Prime Minister Bhutto, tell me what your latest information is about what President Musharraf has done, and your reaction to it.

BHUTTO: General Musharraf has suspended the constitution of Pakistan, so it's really a declaration of martial law. But he's calling it an emergency. An emergency sounds more palatable to international opinion. But the proclamation says that the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan shall remain in abeyance, and that's very worrying. My party and I would like to... read more >>>

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's calling of emergency rule Saturday drew strong censure from the United States, pointing to limits in Washington's power over a key ally in its fight against extremism.

"This action is very disappointing," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement.

"President Musharraf needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before... read more >>>

The president of Pakistan said last night that he was declaring a state of emergency because terrorists threatened the authority of his government.

Defending his decision in the face of strong condemnation from Britain and America, General Pervez Musharraf said Pakistan had reached... read more >>>

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto flew out of Pakistan on Thursday after the Supreme Court vowed not to be intimidated by any threats of martial law when it decides whether to validate the military president's recent election victory.

A suicide bomber, meanwhile, attacked an air force bus, killing eight and wounding 40, the latest in a series of attacks against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's security forces.

Bhutto's decision to visit family in Dubai came just two weeks after she... read more >>>

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed a Pakistan air force bus today and killed at least eight people.

The attack targeted a bus taking personnel to an air base in Sargodha in the central province of Punjab. Twenty-seven people were injured in what was the second suicide attack this week. The attack comes as Pakistani security forces claim to have killed up to 70 Islamist militants in the latest fighting in a restive northwestern region, taking the reported death toll to more than... read more >>>

Justice Javed Iqbal, heading the bench, made it clear during the proceedings on Tuesday that the hearing would be completed by Friday because one member of the bench would not be available next week, the APP report said.

Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum in his arguments on Monday pleaded that the petitions filed by Wajihuddin Ahmed, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Liaqaut Baloch and others were not maintainable.

Abdullah Khan Dogar, the counsel for a petitioner Dr. Anwarul Haq, said the same person could not be elected two times by the same parliament and such a step would be... read more >>>

Six people died in a suicide bombing in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, a day after the government proposed tighter security for elections following an assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The bomber exploded a device today when police at a checkpoint tried to prevent him from entering a golf club run by the military, police said. Three of those killed were police officers and 10 people were hurt. The scene is 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the residence of President Pervez Musharraf, who is also... read more >>>

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has visited her family's ancestral village and the grave of her father in southern Pakistan, where she was greeted by thousands of supporters. Ms. Bhutto arrived at her father's tomb in the village of Garhi Khuda Baksh in a bulletproof vehicle escorted by armed security forces.

It was her first visit to the vast mausoleum built to house the bodies of... read more >>>

The attack happened in Mangora, located in the Swat district where Pakistan recently deployed 2,500 troops to maintain law and order.

Police officer Amjad Khan told the Associated Press the blast hit a platoon of 43 Frontier Constabulary troops in a truck near... read more >>>

Despite its status as Pakistan's hub for commerce, violence has routinely visited Karachi's seething streets: from political and ethnic bloodletting to its emergence as a hub of Islamic militants and scene of repeated terror attacks post-9/11.

So while the suicide bombing that shattered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's return from exile shocked Pakistanis, that it happened in this chaotic port city did not.

"We can complain but no matter how hard we try, we cannot... read more >>>

Two suicide bombers were behind the attack that targeted the former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto as she returned from exile, one of the country's top intelligence officials said today.

Ms Bhutto escaped unhurt in the attack on her heavily guarded convoy in Karachi on Thursday. At least 136 people were killed in the blasts.

Police initially said... read more >>>

Benazir Bhutto bears the responsibility for the deaths of 139 people in an attack on her homecoming parade by exposing them to danger for the sake of her own "personal theatre", her estranged niece said.

Newspaper columnist and poet Fatima Bhutto, the granddaughter of late Pakistani premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, also told AFP in an interview that her aunt's return from exile would... read more >>>

The Pakistan government on Monday rejected former premier Benazir Bhutto's demand to seek international help to probe the suicide attack on her motorcade and said it plans to impose a ban on rallies before the general election, sparking an angry reaction from opposition parties.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao dismissed Bhutto's call to involve foreign agencies in the probe into the two blasts in Karachi that killed nearly 140 people on Thursday night, saying Pakistani authorities have... read more >>>

A senior government official on Monday rejected a call from former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto for U.S. and British experts to help investigate the devastating suicide attack on her homecoming procession.

"I think that sympathizers of al Qaeda and extremist militants in the security administration were responsible for trying to kill me," Bhutto said Monday on CBS News' The Early Show. "I would like an independent inquiry conducted by the government of Pakistan and assisted by the international community, which has... read more >>>

Out of the bloody mess in Karachi -- hundreds killed and maimed in al-Qaeda's latest effort to gain power through psychopathic violence and intimidation -- comes a kind of order.

The position of Benazir Bhutto -- the seemingly perpetual once and future prime minister of Pakistan -- has been immensely enhanced by the failure of the blasts to kill her. If she can remain alive... read more >>>

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto blamed a suicide bombing that killed at least 136 people on unidentified ''minority militants'' and said the attack won't stop her from competing in parliamentary elections.

The assault on her convoy hours after she arrived yesterday in Pakistan represents ''an attack on democracy,'' the former prime minister told reporters in Karachi today. ''We will not be intimidated by these minority militants. We will not stop our campaign. We will not stop... read more >>>

Two explosions ripped through this city late Thursday night, killing more than 100 people, after Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani opposition leader and twice prime minister, returned from exile to her home city.

Her celebratory welcome, with hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets and... read more >>>

The party of former premier Benazir Bhutto rejected a call Thursday from the president to delay her return from exile, insisting she would land in Pakistan as planned next week to campaign for January elections.

Bhutto, who went into self-imposed exile in 1999 to escape corruption charges, plans a grand homecoming Oct. 18. After months of power-sharing talks, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf last week enacted an amnesty quashing cases against her and... read more >>>

Pakistan will hold general elections in early January next year, the prime minister announced Wednesday, in a key step in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation's move to democracy. 

President Pervez Musharraf said meanwhile that exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto should delay her planned return next week to Pakistan to lead her party in the key elections. 

"Elections would be held in the first part of January," premier Shaukat Aziz told reporters during a... read more >>>

Gen. Pervez Musharraf's "election" last weekend as Pakistan's president was a perversion of democracy.

The vote was not really a vote since, knowing how badly the deck was stacked, the opposition parties refused to participate. The results must be certified by the Supreme Court, which must decide whether Musharraf was even eligible to... read more >>>

After eight years as a military dictator, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf last week brokered a tentative power-sharing arrangement with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, courted political moderates at home, and pledged to... read more >>>

Pakistan has entered a period of political limbo, caught between Gen. Pervez Musharraf's presidential election win and a future Supreme Court ruling on whether he was even eligible to run.

Musharraf scored an overwhelming victory Saturday in a vote by lawmakers that was boycotted by... read more >>>

Gen. Pervez Musharraf won an overwhemingly majority in a presidential election boycotted by nearly the entire opposition Saturday, and attention shifted to Supreme Court deliberations on whether he can claim victory. Opposition parties that snubbed the vote claimed it was undemocratic and... read more >>>

General Musharraf has overcome legal challenges to his candidacy to become Pakistan's president for a second time. But with every victory the opposition grows stronger, reports Graham Usher from Islamabad

For a moment last Friday the austere chambers of Pakistan's Supreme Court became a scrum. "No!" shouted one woman. "Shame! Shame!" cried a... read more >>>

Pakistan will be on high security alert for presidential elections on Saturday amid fears of a militant backlash against Al-Qaeda's number one enemy, military ruler Pervez Musharraf, officials said.

Tensions will be high after Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden called recently for Pakistanis to wage holy war against... read more >>>

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto threatened to inflict a "severe blow" to the re-election plan of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf by pulling her party's legislators out of parliament unless he yields in power-sharing talks.

Her threat was part of frantic, last-minute manoeuvring before Saturday's presidential election by national and provincial legislators that Musharraf is expected... read more >>>

The Constitution prevents the current assemblies from electing a new president and it will be a great tragedy if the current legislature re-elects President General Pervez Musharraf, said Justice (r) Wajeehuddin Ahmad, the lawyers’ nominee for the presidential election.

“By electing the new president, the current assemblies will usurp the right of the next assemblies. And from then on, it’ll be... read more >>>