Islamabad, Sep 20 : By playing a key role in the deportation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Jeddah, the Saudi Government has in fact helped Pakistan to avert a threat to its peace and unity, Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asseri has claimed.

Commenting on the Saudi support to Pakistan, Asseri said, "This support has been extended not as a favour to another country, but as a fulfilment of responsibility towards a friend and a brother."

Islamabad, Sep 20 : An Islamic extremist has threatened to bomb a girls’ school in Taxila if its teachers and students don’t wear a veil.

The principal of the high school is said to have received a letter from an unidentified man, a local source said.

"Yes we have received a threatening letter from a religious fanatic, and we are scared," said Shakeela, the acting principal of the school.

The school management has informed the students about the letter and told that nothing would happen to them if they wore a veil, she added.

Washington, Sept 20 Pakistan writer Ayesha Siddiqa has reiterated that the Pakistan Army should disentangle itself from the ‘vast business empire’ it has created, if it wants to succeed as a professional fighting force.

Speaking ahead of launching her book ‘Military Inc’ at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Siddiqa dismissed speculations that she was on a mission to defame the Pakistani military, and said that the military’s vast business interests not only introduces a culture of ‘cronyism’, but also hurts its own professional capabilities.

Lahore, Sep 19: Tehrik-i-Insaf chief and former cricketer Imran Khan has said that Pakistan cannot survive under a dictatorial rule, and democracy was indispensable for the country.

Khan told a public meeting at Sahiwal Sahib club President Pervez Musharraf and former premier Benazir Bhutto were determined to complete an American agenda by declaring patriotic citizens as extremists.