Islamabad, Jan 28 : Pakistan on Wednesday hit back against US Defence Secretary Robert Gates statement by saying that US drone strikes inside its tribal areas were "counter-productive" to anti-terrorism efforts.

"Our policy remains unchanged and we believe drone strikes are counter-productive," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said.

London, Jan 28: Pakistan has suffered the sharpest rise in suicide attacks from July 2007 to June 2008, according to a newly published report.

A significant shift in the incidence of suicide bombing has taken place away from Iraq and towards Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last three years.

Lahore, Jan. 28 : The World Bank (WB) is expected to give Pakistan a `soft loan' of 500 hundred million dollars to tackle the sluggish economic conditions and counter the ever increasing problem of poverty, provided it carries out a slew of political and economic reforms under its loan guidelines.

According to the Daily Times, the loan will be transferred to Pakistan in a single transaction after the approval of the World Bank. The WB officials would meet on 15th February to finalise the terms and conditions of the loan.

Lahore, Jan 28: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that the Taliban's act of summoning politicians and citizens to their so-called Sharia Courts in Swat is a testimony to the absence of the state's writ in the area.

"Repeated official vows of regaining control of the situation in the Swat Valley have been exposed by the extremists' call to politicians to appear before their courts," HRCP said on Tuesday.

Peshawar, Jan 28 : The NWFP Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education, Sardar Hussain Babak, said that it has become difficult for the government to stop Tehrik-I-Taliban Pakistan from torching and bombing girls schools in the restive Swat Valley.

Commenting on destruction of yet another school by Taliban in Odigram, a suburb of Mingora city, Babak said the government could not stop the destruction of schools when the area people took up arms and wore suicide jackets to torch and bomb their own schools.

London, Jan 28: The continuing of US strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan could undermine the position of President Asif Zardari vis-a-vis the Army, Western defence experts have said.

They believe that the US-led military intervention is faltering in Afghanistan and can collapse unless a robust diplomatic strategy, involving tribal outreach and a more coordinated international approach, is adopted.