Lahore, Feb. 21 : Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has claimed that he took the blame for the 1999 Kargil War to save the Pakistan Army from further humiliation

"The Kargil Operation was planned and executed by the army under the then COAS General Parvez Musharraf's leadership without my knowledge,"The News quoted Sharif, as saying on the sidelines of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) general council meeting in Raiwind..

Hundreds of Pakistani army men and militants infiltrated into India between May and July 1999.

Lahore, Feb. 21 : The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) administration is headed for some big trouble as several religious leaders have come on stage to criticize it for its banning employees from having beards.

The leaders have termed the decision as a violation of the Constitution and an abuse of fundamental rights, The News reports.

Islamabad, Feb. 21 : The ghost of huge financial mismanagement during General Pervez Musharraf's regime is out again to haunt the former President and his close associates.

The Pakistan's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has decided to constitute a sub-committee to investigate how 179 million rupees was spent by the Ministry of Culture on the verbal orders of Musharraf in 2005.

The sub-committee would be headed by Nadeem Afzal Chann, and would report back to the PAC with its findings after a month, The Dawn reports.

Islamabad - Pakistani security forces have killed 25 militants as a roadside bomb exploded next to a tanker carrying fuel for North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan, leaving one dead in Pakistan's tribal region, officials said.

Meanwhile, two people were killed in the Dera Ismail Khan district in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as the sectarian tensions between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups continued to rise a day after a suicide bomber killed 35 people at a Shiite funeral.

Islamabad, Feb. 21: Different factions of the Taliban have buried their differences to form a coalition to jointly counter attacks against them, The Daily Times reports.

According to sources, three important factions of the Taliban, including the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, and Taliban leaders Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadar held a meeting at an undisclosed location in Waziristan.

Karachi, Feb. 21 : Top Pakistani cricket officials may have denied Javed Miandad more say in the working of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), but the veteran cricketer is in great demand in Afghanistan.

Miandad has said that he has received an invitation from Afghanistan to give tips to their cricketers.

"I received a telephone call from Afghanistan''s Sports Minister who wanted me to tour their country. I have no problems in travelling to Afghanistan and giving tips to their cricketers," The News quoted Miandad, as saying.