Islamabad, Aug 20 : Signs of the four-party coalition government in Islamabad falling apart were witnessed last evening when PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari expressed his unwillingness to restore the deposed Supreme Court chief justice Ifthikhar Chaudhary and proposed the “Minus One” formula, which means restoration of all judges except the sacked CJ.

Islamabad, Aug.

Bamiyan (Afghanistan), Aug. 20: The resignation of President Pervez Musharraf on Monday has created a major political vacuum in Pakistan, and this, according to the New York Times, is escalating the war in neighboring Afghanistan

According to the paper, Taliban insurgents have mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting in Afghanistan over the last two days, including a coordinated assault by at least 10 suicide bombers against one of the largest American military bases in the country, and another by about 100 insurgents who killed 10 elite French paratroopers.

New York, Aug 20 : The new leadership in Pakistan – mainly PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif – will have to show personal courage and broad political support to clean up its armed forces and intelligence agency ISI of the elements which have in the past killed Indian diplomats in collaboration with armed Islamic extremists.

Islamabad, Aug 20: Around 63 percent of people in Pakistan are happy at former president Pervez Musharraf’s resignation, while 15 percent regret the move, a new survey conducted by Pakistan’s unit of Gallup International has revealed.

Nearly 20 percent of those interviewed couldn’t tell whether were happy or unhappy at Musharraf’s moving out of the scene. “20 percent were ambivalent about saying whether they were happy or unhappy”, the Daily Times quoted the survey findings as saying.

Islamabad, Aug 20: True to the apprehensions that the PPP-PML-N coalition might not survive for long after the two parties’ common goal of getting rid of Musharraf was over on Monday, PML-N leader and former premier Nawaz Sharif is learnt to have declared that he would pull out of the four-month-old federal government if the deposed Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was not reinstated within 72 hours (from Tuesday evening).