Pakistan Military Not Capitalizing on Taliban Disarray

A week after a CIA drone strike is believed to have killed Baitullah Mehsud, you’d think the Pakistan military would be rushing to capitalize on the apparent disarray in the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban as rivals fight to succeed him. But rather than mount an offensive in the strongholds of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in South Waziristan — the sort of campaign promised by President Asif Ali Zardari back in May — Pakistan’s generals seem content to let the CIA’s drones do most of the fighting. Indeed, some officials in Islamabad say Mehsud’s death may open the way for a truce with the TTP, if his successor agrees to stop fighting the Pakistani state and instead turns their weapons on Western forces in Afghanistan

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Flag rises for Pakistan’s returned chief justice

Pakistan’s fired chief justice was reinstated in a flag-raising ceremony at his house Sunday after the government bowed to protesters’ demands following days of massive demonstrations. The flag-raising was ceremonial. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will not renew his oath of office because his firing by former President Pervez Musharraf was deemed illegal.

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Lawyers in Pakistan begin four-day march to capital

Hundreds of lawyers and their supporters boarded buses in Karachi that will carry them to the capital, Islamabad, where they will demand that the government immediately restore judges that the previous president ousted. The group, numbering from 300 to 500, will join thousands of other demonstrators who are also headed to the capital as part of a four-day “Long March.” The demonstrators plan a massive sit-in at the parliament building on Monday. “Our movement is a peaceful movement,” said organizer Rasheed Razvi, president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association.

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Opposition leader ban sparks Pakistan protests

Supporters of Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif took to the streets Thursday, burning cars and damaging shops, after the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that he and his brother cannot hold elected office. The protests also resulted from President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday imposing governor’s rule in the state of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous state. Punjab is the power center for Sharif’s party, and where his brother, Shahbaz, was chief minister

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