Islamabad, Aug 2 : The increasing prices of basic food items have resulted in long queues for free food (langars) in front of masjids and shrines. While till recently only beggars and the needy used to visit the ‘langar khana’, but over the past few weeks labourers and others from lower income group are also joining in to enjoy free food.

Inflation has broken the back of many people who now find their earnings not sufficient enough to cope with the skyrocketing prices, said a report in the Daily Times.

Washington, Aug. 2 : Pakistan''s Information Minister and government spokesman, Sherry Rehman, has shockingly revealed that some officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are probably working against official policy, and steps are being taken to identify them so that they can be removed.

"There are "probably" individuals in the ISI working against official policy. The authorities need to identify these people and weed them out," the Washington Times quoted Rehman, as saying.

Washington, Aug. 2 : Senior officials of the Bush Administration, concerned about the activities of Pakistan''s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), are pressing their Pakistani counterparts to bring the spy service under civilian control.

According to the New York Times, the pressure from the Americans comes amid heightened concerns at the State Department, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency that ISI operatives are becoming bolder and more open in their support for militant Islamist organizations.

Karachi - A radical cleric on Friday softened his stance on an American girl student holed up in his madrassa in Pakistan's southern port city Karachi, saying he would allow the teenager to return to her homeland if the government comes to terms with him.

Muna Abanur Mohammed, an American girl of African origin, is among eight foreign students studying at Jamia Binoria who were blacklisted by Pakistani authorities and asked to leave the country immediately following the expiration of their visas.

Islamabad, Aug. 1 : Much was expected from Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s first official visit to the United States, as he represented democracy in his country. But sadly, he fell short on many scores, feels a Pakistani columnist.

According to Shaheen Sehbai, Group Editor of daily English newspaper The News International, decision makers in Washington D. C. are still trying to figure out what to make of the visit.

Washington, Aug. 1 : An expert on South Asian affairs has said that Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his government may find it difficult to do business with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country’s premier intelligence outfit in the immdeaite future, in the wake of recent moves to bring it under civilian control.

Frederic Grare, a visiting scholar with the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), said it appeared as if the Gilani-led Government had tried its level best to bring the ISI under the control of the Interior Ministry, but failed.