CORRESPONDENTS

Saeed Shah

Code Pink activists warned of possible terrorist strike against anti-drone rally in Pakistan

U.S. diplomats Friday warned a group of American peace activists not to attend a rally against U.S. missile strikes scheduled for this weekend, saying terrorists have threatened to attack the demonstration. | 10/05/12 15:50:36 By - By Saeed Shah

Police, protesters battle in Pakistan over anti-Islam video; at least 15 dead, but U.S. Embassy unscathed

Violent protests broke out across Pakistan on Friday as people vented their fury over a YouTube video that they believe is blasphemous. At least 15 people died amid widespread destruction. | 09/21/12 15:07:21 By - By Saeed Shah

Pakistani girl gets bail on blasphemy charge

A Pakistani court ordered the release on bail Friday of a mentally disabled Christian girl who’d been jailed on blasphemy charges, a decision that brought some sense of justice here but didn’t end the threat the girl faces for allegedly burning pages of the Quran. | 09/07/12 17:26:14 By - By Saeed Shah

Unexpected support for Christian girl in Pakistan blasphemy case may be sign of change

The heart-wrenching tale of a Christian girl charged with blasphemy could, at last, have forced the beginning of a change of attitudes on an incendiary issue that has led to the assassination of two government officials and widespread tensions between the country’s Muslim majority and its tiny Christian minority, officials and analysts now believe. | 09/06/12 17:54:00 By - By Saeed Shah

Suicide bomber rams U.S. vehicle in Pakistan

A bomb injured two Americans employed at the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, along with two local staff, when a suicide attacker rammed their vehicle Monday, officials said. | 09/03/12 07:51:50 By - Saeed Shah

Girl in Pakistan blasphemy case said to be minor, boosting chance of acquittal

A Christian girl accused of blasphemy is a juvenile, according to a medical report presented to a Pakistani court, a finding that improves her chance of being released on bail and eventually acquitted of the charges. | 08/28/12 14:45:52 By - By Saeed Shah

Pakistan's conservative mullahs question case of disabled girl charged with blasphemy

A group of Islamic leaders in Pakistan lent strong support Monday to a mentally disabled Christian girl accused of blasphemy in an unprecedented public move that was the first denunciation by hard-line mullahs of the country's controversial blasphemy law. | 08/27/12 17:53:00 By - By Saeed Shah

After 30 years, Pakistan rolls up welcome mat for Afghan refugees

Pakistan plans to cancel refugee status at the end of this year for the 3 million Afghans who are living in the country, officials have told McClatchy, leaving the refugees facing possible forced resettlement in their homeland, a war-torn country that many of them barely know. | 07/23/12 17:05:32 By - By Saeed Shah

U.N. doctor injured in latest blow to anti-polio campaign in Pakistan

Pakistan’s drive against polio was thrown into disarray Tuesday after a foreign doctor working on a vaccination campaign was shot, a day after the Taliban reiterated a ban on immunization in the country’s tribal areas, officials said. | 07/17/12 17:48:41 By - By Saeed Shah

Pakistanis say political sideshow distracts from their real problems

At the shabby Waseem Cafe – one of the few places in the heart of the affluent, purpose-built capital of Islamabad where ordinary Pakistanis gather – the mood on a recent afternoon was grim, and patrons were deeply disillusioned with Islamabad’s main business: politics. | 07/02/12 15:38:53 By - By Saeed Shah

Yousuf Raza Gilani disqualified as prime minister as Pakistan legal battle intensifies

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was dismissed from office Tuesday by the courts, a victim of an intensifying conflict between the government and the judiciary that has plunged the country into fresh political turmoil. | 06/19/12 16:52:52 By - By Saeed Shah

Judges in Pakistan throw out case of tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain

Attempting to defuse a legal scandal that threatened Pakistan’s judiciary, the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Thursday declared “utterly baseless” charges that the integrity of its chief justice had been compromised by claims that his son had accepted money and gifts from a rich businessman. | 06/14/12 17:21:31 By - By Saeed Shah

Latest intrigue in Pakistan embroils crusading chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry

A new scandal involving a powerful tycoon has embroiled the only public institution in Pakistan that was considered clean: the judiciary. | 06/12/12 18:58:04 By - By Saeed Shah

Panetta calls for mending U.S.-Pakistan ties as supply talks continue

Money-focused talks to repair broken U.S.-Pakistan ties and reopen NATO supply routes into Afghanistan are taking place in Islamabad this week, officials said, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Wednesday that the relationship between the two countries must be mended. | 06/06/12 18:10:19 By - By Saeed Shah

Militancy charges, not treason, cited in Pakistan’s judgment against Shakil Afridi

In a twist to a case that’s angered Washington, the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA hunt Osama bin Laden was convicted and jailed last week for supposed involvement with an Islamic militant group, not his work for American intelligence, court documents revealed Wednesday. | 05/30/12 18:49:51 By - By Saeed Shah

Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped CIA track bin Laden, sentenced for treason in Pakistan

Dr. Afridi was sentenced in a tribal court under colonial-era laws even though his alleged offense, running a fake vaccination campaign intended to capture DNA from residents of bin Laden’s compound, was committed in Abbottabad, where tribal laws don’t apply. | 05/23/12 16:36:28 By - By Saeed Shah

Pakistan agrees to reopen NATO supply route to Afghanistan, but for a fee

The cost of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan is about to rise by $365 million annually under an agreement that would reopen a key NATO supply route through Pakistan that’s been closed for nearly six months. | 05/15/12 18:29:02 By - By Saeed Shah

Kidnapped American, Warren Weinstein, pleads for his life in new video

An American aid worker kidnapped last year by al Qaida militants in Pakistan has made an impassioned video appeal to President Barack Obama to save his life. | 05/07/12 05:00:00 By - By Saeed Shah

A year after bin Laden raid, Pakistan still harboring U.S.’s biggest enemies

A year after Osama bin Laden was found and killed, Pakistan still harbors, willingly or unwillingly, America’s greatest enemies: current al Qaida chief Ayman al Zawahiri and Afghan insurgent leaders Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Mohammad Omar. | 04/30/12 17:34:38 By - By Saeed Shah

Conviction of Pakistan leader roils new democracy

Pakistan was thrown into fresh political turmoil Thursday after the prime minister was convicted of contempt of court. | 04/26/12 16:54:52 By - By Saeed Shah

Airliner crashes in Pakistan, killing all 127 aboard

An airliner on a domestic flight crashed Friday near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad with 127 people on board after trying to land in stormy weather, officials and news reports said. | 04/20/12 00:00:00 By - By Saeed Shah

In Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed protests $10 million U.S. bounty for his capture

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the Pakistani Islamist leader on whom the United States placed a $10 million bounty earlier this month, filed a court challenge Wednesday demanding that the Pakistani government provide him security and pressure Washington to lift the reward for his capture. | 04/18/12 00:00:00 By - By Saeed Shah

In remote Baluchistan, Pakistan fights a shadowy war

The family of Jalil Reki learned from television news that his body had been found, more than two years after the political activist was allegedly abducted by Pakistani security officials. Scarred by torture and shot through the back of the head, his grisly story is replicated across Pakistan's remote western province of Baluchistan. | 03/29/12 17:06:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistani high court challenges spy agency over election payments

In a case that shines a harsh light on the interference in the country's politics of Pakistan's army and its premier spy agency, the Supreme Court on Friday heard an admission by a former spymaster that he distributed secret funds to opposition politicians in elections in 1990. | 03/09/12 14:52:00 By - Saeed Shah

Bin Laden widows charged as new probe describes discord in his home

Pakistani authorities said Thursday that they'd filed charges against Osama bin Laden's three widows as an investigation revealed fresh details of the dead al Qaida leader's family life in Pakistan — including suspicions by two of the women that the oldest wife would betray him. | 03/08/12 17:04:00 By - Saeed Shah

Aid groups protest to CIA over bin Laden scheme

A leading coalition of American humanitarian aid groups has written to the CIA chief to protest the agency's use of a Pakistani doctor to help track Osama bin Laden, linking the ploy to a worsening polio crisis in Pakistan. | 03/02/12 17:18:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan begins demolishing compound where bin Laden lived, died

Pakistani authorities late Saturday began demolishing the house where Osama bin Laden had lived in a town in the north of the country, local residents said, in a move that will remove the physical symbol of the al Qaida leader's presence in the country. | 02/25/12 14:38:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistani health workers punished for helping U.S. find bin Laden

Seventeen local health workers have been fired for their part in a scheme that the CIA orchestrated in an effort to confirm that al Qaida founder Osama bin Laden was hiding in a walled compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, a health official in that town said Wednesday. | 02/22/12 16:55:00 By - Saeed Shah

Angry Karzai confronts Pakistan's leaders over Taliban

An angry Afghan President Hamid Karzai confronted the Pakistani leadership Thursday, demanding that it produce Taliban officials for peace talks and underscoring the distrust between Kabul and Islamabad, which stands in the way of a deal to end the decade-long Afghan conflict. | 02/16/12 18:25:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan still holding bin Laden family months after raid

The family of Osama bin Laden's youngest wife has asked the chief justice of Pakistan to order authorities to release her children and her and allow them to return to Yemen, nine months after the U.S. special forces raid that killed the al Qaida founder. Zakaria Ahmad al Sadah, brother of Amal al Sadah, bin Laden's Yemeni wife, said his sister's five children were in poor mental health and had received no schooling since they were taken into custody after the raid May 2. | 02/14/12 17:17:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan's ISI yields to Supreme Court, surrenders prisoners

The Pakistani Supreme Court on Monday forced authorities to produce seven men who had vanished from prison two years ago into the apparent custody of the military's main spy agency as the court continued to assert its authority against both the country's powerful army and its weak civilian government. | 02/13/12 06:16:02 By - Saeed Shah

In court's crosshairs, Pakistan's military refuses to produce prisoners

In a court battle testing the impunity long enjoyed by Pakistan's intelligence service, the Pakistani military said Thursday that it wouldn't bring forward seven men who were mysteriously kidnapped from prison in 2010 — allegedly by intelligence agents — because they were in extremely poor health. | 02/09/12 17:15:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan Supreme Court charges prime minister with contempt

Pakistan's prime minister will be charged with contempt of court and was ordered Thursday to appear in person before the Supreme Court on Feb. 13, in proceedings that could lead to him being jailed and disqualified from office. | 02/02/12 06:10:43 By - Saeed Shah

U.S. defense chief confirms Pakistan holds doctor with role in bin Laden raid

A senior American official has for the first time admitted that a Pakistani doctor played a key role in tracking Osama bin Laden to his hideout in northern Pakistan and called for his release. | 01/29/12 12:36:00 By - Saeed Shah

Mansoor Ijaz won't come to Pakistan, a blow to Memogate case

The American businessman at the heart of the explosive "memogate" political scandal will not come to Pakistan to testify, blaming concerns for his own safety, his lawyer admitted Monday. | 01/23/12 06:16:41 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan's Gilani says he won't pursue case against Zardari

Extending a battle of wills between Pakistan's government and its judiciary, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the Supreme Court on Thursday that he wouldn't bow to a court order targeting the country's president. | 01/19/12 06:41:40 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistani Supreme Court threatens Gilani with contempt charge

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was threatened Monday with jail for contempt of court and ordered to appear before the Supreme Court in person, with any conviction on the charge leading to him possibly being disqualified from office. | 01/16/12 07:02:16 By - Saeed Shah

Critical week ahead for Pakistan's besieged government

Pakistan's political crisis, which pits its president against determined foes in the country's parliament, Supreme Court and military, is likely to reach fever pitch on Monday with a confidence vote scheduled in parliament and hearings scheduled in two critical court cases. | 01/15/12 16:17:00 By - Saeed Shah

Mansoor Ijaz says he'll testify in Pakistan's Memogate scandal

The controversial American businessman at the center of the legal case that threatens to bring down the Pakistani government vowed Thursday to fly to Islamabad and tell the court the "unaltered truth" in the so-called Memogate scandal. | 01/12/12 17:36:00 By - Saeed Shah

Confrontation between Pakistan's army, government sparks coup concerns

The confrontation between Pakistan's civilian government and its powerful army escalated sharply Wednesday when Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani fired the defense secretary and the military warned that remarks by Gilani this week had "potentially grievous consequences." | 01/11/12 09:56:07 By - Saeed Shah

Ex-envoy at center of Pakistani scandal decries 'witch hunt'

Pakistan's former ambassador to Washington — the focus of a scandal that threatens to topple the government in Islamabad — said Monday that he was caught up in a "witch hunt" against democracy. | 01/09/12 17:37:00 By - Saeed Shah

Latest crisis tests survival skills of Pakistan's President Zardari

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has confounded predictions of his downfall throughout his term in office, but even as the U.S. ally unexpectedly returned to the country this week, many still believe that his demise is close at hand. | 12/20/11 17:54:00 By - Saeed Shah

Angry Pakistan to impose tax on NATO military supplies

Pakistan is planning to tax supplies for U.S.-led coalition troops that are shipped through its territory to land-locked Afghanistan, officials revealed, in retaliation for the recent deaths of its soldiers in a "friendly fire" incident on the border. | 12/14/11 18:01:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan's President Zardari to leave hospital, but return unclear

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will be discharged from hospital in Dubai on Thursday, but it remained unclear when he will return home, according to his aides. | 12/14/11 17:06:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistani president hospitalized; aides say he won't resign

Pakistan's embattled president, Asif Ali Zardari, is determined to resist pressure to quit, his close aides said Wednesday, after Zardari's sudden hospitalization in Dubai ignited feverish speculation about him resigning. | 12/07/11 15:48:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan orders troops to return fire if attacked on Afghan border

Pakistan's top military commander has issued orders to the country's troops to return fire should they come under attack again from U.S.-led coalition forces in a move likely to increase tensions after last week's American-led raid on two border outposts that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. | 12/02/11 09:04:13 By - Saeed Shah

U.S., Pakistan offer different versions of attack on border post

NATO officials said Afghan and U.S. troops operating inside Afghanistan early Saturday had been fired on from the Pakistani side of the border and had requested close air support to help defend themselves. But Pakistan's chief military spokesman said he did not believe that there had been any fire directed at the Americans from Pakistan and said he did not believe the U.S. attack could have been inadvertent. | 11/27/11 17:14:00 By - Saeed Shah and Nancy A. Youssef

Pakistan blocks U.S. supplies, orders drone base closed after NATO raid

Pakistan on Saturday blocked supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan and announced it would end the use of a Pakistani airbase by American forces, in retaliation for a NATO attack on a Pakistani border outpost that officials said killed at least 24 soldiers and injuring another 13. | 11/26/11 15:57:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan targets U.S. troop supplies, drone base after NATO kills 24

Pakistan on Saturday blocked supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan and announced it would end American use of a Pakistani airbase in retaliation for a NATO attack on a Pakistani border outpost that officials said killed at least 24 soldiers and injured another 13. | 11/26/11 09:27:26 By - Saeed Shah

Woman who wants Pakistan's blasphemy law reformed is new ambassador to U.S.

Sherry Rehman, a high-profile politician under threat for her call to reform Pakistan's blasphemy law, was named Pakistan's new ambassador to Washington on Wednesday, one day after her predecessor was forced to resign at the apparent behest of the country's powerful military. | 11/23/11 15:23:00 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan names human rights advocate to be ambassador to U.S.

Sherry Rehman, a high-profile politician under threat for her call to reform Pakistan's blasphemy law, was appointed as the new ambassador to Washington on Wednesday, a day after her predecessor Husain Haqqani was ousted at the apparent behest of the country’s powerful military. | 11/23/11 07:36:07 By - Saeed Shah

Pakistan ambassador to Washington resigns

A confrontation between Pakistan’s powerful military and the civilian government, over a controversial offer supposedly made by the government to the U.S. administration to rein in the army forces and its spy agency, led Tuesday to the resignation of the Islamabad’s ambassador to Washington. | 11/22/11 11:21:27 By - Saeed Shah

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