Islamabad, Aug 18 : In a style that could have beaten Hitchcock at his best in terms of suspense, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today announced his resignation from Presidency in his Address to the Nation, saying that his resignation would be soon submitted to the National Assembly Speaker.

He said he was stepping down because he didn''t want to drag the office of President of Pakistan to the process of Impeachment. "Even if the impeachment process against me is defeated, the Office of President would be demeaned and it won''t give a right message", he said with moist eyes.

Islamabad, Aug 18 : On an average cars worth Rs one billion are stolen every month in Pakistan, said a report of the country’s Interior Ministry, and added that cars of an estimated worth of Rs 18 billion were stolen in the past 18 months.

According to the report, 14,037 vehicles worth Rs seven billion were stolen or snatched across the country during the first half of 2008 while 23,144 vehicles worth Rs 11 billion were stolen or snatched during 2007.

Punjab had the highest number of vehicle lifting incidents, as 7432 vehicles were taken away in the first six months of 2008 and 6,801 in the same period of 2007. In NWFP, the figures remained low and 341 vehicles were stolen from Jan 1 to June 30, 2008 as compared to 329 in the same period in 2007.

Islamabad, Aug 18 : After the US refused to offer Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf an asylum after being ousted, or stepping down, the Presidential camp in Rawalpindi got another setback when Saudi Arabia also refused to extend him a long stay in Jeddah’s Al-Saroor Palace.

This is the same palace where former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif spent seven years after being thrown out by Musharraf in a military coup in October 1999.

Mingora (Pak), Aug 18 : Several incidents of terror were reported from the Swat Valley last evening, in which at least four people were killed and 13 injured.

A basic health unit, a girls’ school and a barber shop were set on fire and a police post was blown up by militants, while at other places the security forces attacked suspected militant hideouts with heavy weapons, reported the Dawn.

Peshawar, Aug 18 : Even as the Bajaur Agency continues to be strife-torn, tens of thousands of families, including all journalists based in the Agency, have shifted to safer places like Lower Dir, Malakand Agency, Mardan and a few districts in Peshawar.

Amid the ongoing military operation in the tribal agency, jetfighters and gunship helicopters are pounding the militants’ hideouts and compounds in the Bajaur Agency.

London, Aug. 18: The Situation in Pakistan is bothering everyone who has any interest or link with this region; and what worries people is that no one seems to be in control of the situation there, and no one knows future of the country.

The situation started getting from bad to worse with Pakistan's entry in the 'war on terror', which in view of many Pakistani experts was not Pakistan's war, and if anything Pakistani agencies had their own history and experience of promoting and exporting this business.