Islamabad, Oct 27: PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who was his party’s front runner for the post of Prime Minister after February election and had once threatened to create a vertical split in the party, has reportedly turned his stance, saying that the ongoing economic and energy crises and the scourge of terrorism in the country was a ‘conspiracy against the government’.

“I think some hidden forces are trying to destabilise the government,” the Daily Times quoted him as telling a foreign news agency.

Islamabad, Oct 27: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf is said to be keen on leading the PML-Q, the political party which he backed during last February elections. He reportedly expressed this desire in front of his personal friends in Lahore last week at a dinner.

Musharraf also told his friends that if the Chaudhrys of Gujarat, who are presently holding the reins of the party, were not ready to quit, “then someone from the ranks of the party should make them leave so that he could take over without much fuss”.

Karachi, Oct 27: Despite fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s dismal performances in the ongoing domestic tournament Pentangular Cup and the Twenty20 event in Toronto earlier this month, the country’s chief selector Saleem Jaffer, himself a former pacer, has exuded confidence in the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ saying he was pushing hard to get back into the team, and that the selectors would give him enough time to regain the lost form.

Islamabad - A meeting of Pakistani and Afghan political and tribal leaders started on Monday against the backdrop of the recent strategy shift by the US allies to bring peace to Afghanistan through dialogue with the Taliban militants.

"We must not shut the doors of negotiations to those sons of the soil willing to forsake the path of violence. With a patient ear we must listen to them and let them be heard," said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as he opened the talks in Islamabad.

Washington, Oct 27: Following furious complaints from the Pakistan government for further ground raids into its tribal areas, the White House has reportedly begun relying on an intensifying campaign of air-strikes by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against militants in the Pakistani mountains.

The decision followed after Pakistani officials made clear in public that they regard the Predator attacks as “a less objectionable violation of Pakistani sovereignty”.

Quoting American and Pakistani officials, the New York Times reported that attacks by remotely piloted Predator aircraft had increased sharply in frequency and scope during the past three months.

Lahore, Oct 27 : The unceremonious removal of erstwhile Pakistan cricket coach Geoff Lawson, of Australia, has drawn flak from within the country’s cricketing world, even as former cricketers have said that the decision had invited international ire towards Pakistan and that, henceforth, no foreign coach would show interest in accepting coaching assignment here.