PAKISTAN’S Supreme Court ramped up pressure on the nation’s government yesterday, beginning contempt proceedings against the prime minister for failing to carry out its order to reopen a corruption case against the president.

Pakistan’s top court has initiated contempt proceedings against the prime minister for failing to carry out the court’s order to open a corruption probe into the president.

Pakistan’s prime minister has appealed for support from parliament in a stand-off between his beleaguered government and the armed forces, saying MPs had to choose between “democracy and dictatorship”.

Pakistan’s prime minister telephoned the top British diplomat in the country, expressing fears that the army might be about to stage a coup, reports say.

Pakistan blocked vital supply routes for US-led troops in Afghanistan and demanded Washington leave a base used by American drones after coalition aircraft allegedly killed 24 troops at two posts along a mountainous frontier that serves as a safe haven for militants.

Pakistan’s army chief will convene a special meeting of senior commanders today following US allegations that the military’s spy agency helped militants attack American targets in Afghanistan, the army said.

PAKISTAN’S prime minister said Osama bin Laden’s death in an American raid was “indeed justice done” and insisted the relationship with the US was still strong.

THE second-largest member of Pakistan’s ruling coalition reversed its decision to join the opposition yesterday, averting the potential collapse of the government in this nuclear-armed nation.

Pakistan's political crisis eased today as the second-largest member of ruling coalition reversed its decision to join the opposition, staving off the potential collapse of the government.

Pakistan’s prime minister is trying to keep his government from collapsing after a key party said it was quitting the ruling coalition, leaving the government short of majority support in parliament.

PAKISTANI authorities blocked a vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan yesterday after the killing of three soldiers in two NATO cross-border incursions, officials said.

Pakistan’s economic growth will plunge 2% because of the floods and lead to “massive” job losses, the prime minister warned today.

PAKISTAN’S medical system has been badly hit by weeks of flooding, with hundreds of health facilities damaged and tens of thousands of medical workers displaced, the prime minister said yesterday as the country braced for the spread of disease.

Pakistan is bracing itself for countrywide outbreaks of disease after the weeks of flooding damaged hospitals and clinics and turned tens of thousands of medical workers into refugees.

A case of the deadly waterborne disease cholera has been confirmed in Pakistan’s flood-ravaged northwest, and aid workers expect there to be more, the UN said today.

A case of the deadly, waterborne disease cholera has been confirmed in Pakistan’s flood-ravaged northwest, and aid workers expect it is not isolated, the UN said today.

FRESH rains lashed flood-hit Pakistan yesterday, hampering aid efforts and threatening to deepen a crisis affecting 15 million people in the country’s worst ever floods.

Pakistan and India will resume official talks later this month, Pakistani officials said today.

An explosion apparently caused by a suicide vest stored in a house in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi killed eight suspected militants today.

Pakistan may launch a new military offensive near the Afghan border where militant leaders are believed to have fled to escape a government onslaught against the Taliban in South Waziristan, the prime minister said.

Pakistan’s president turned over command of the country’s nuclear arsenal to his political ally the prime minister and signalled he was ready to shed more power amid growing pressure to resign.

Pakistan has ramped up its campaign against Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, placing a bounty on the chieftain’s head and launching air strikes on his stronghold in the country’s north-west.

The Pakistan military says it has regained control of the largest town in the Swat Valley from the Taliban.

A Pakistani leader issued a "final" appeal to Taliban militants to retreat to their Swat Valley stronghold today and salvage a peace deal that has been roundly criticised in the West.

Sacked Pakistani Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was reinstated to his post following months of pressure from the opposition, it was reported today.

Pakistan agreed today to reinstate a fired Supreme Court chief justice, a move that will help defuse a political crisis that sparked street battles and raised fears of instability in the US-allied country at a time of surging Islamist violence.

Pakistan will not let British investigators question suspects detained in Pakistan over the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the prime minister said today.

Two men reportedly wanted by India in connection with the Mumbai attacks have been arrested, Pakistan’s prime minister confirmed today.

Gunshots fired at a motorcade for Pakistan’s prime minister struck his vehicle today, but he was not in any of the cars during the apparent assassination attempt, a top government official said.

Pakistan’s prime minister survived an apparent assassination attempt today when at least two shots hit his limousine as he drove toward Islamabad.

Pakistan’s prime minister denied today that his country’s intelligence agency played any role in the suicide bombing outside the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital.

Investigators today examined the site of a suicide blast in Islamabad that targeted Pakistan’s police and left at least 15 people dead, while officials searched for clues about the alleged attacker.

Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has vowed to step up the fight against terrorism as officials investigate who exploded a car bomb outside the Danish Embassy that killed at least six people.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband met Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf today, a day after backing plans by Pakistan’s new government to negotiate with militants who renounce violence.

Pakistan's new prime minister says fighting terrorism will be his government's top priority.

President Pervez Musharraf has sworn in a loyalist of slain ex-leader Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan’s new prime minister.

Pakistan’s parliament elected former speaker and Bhutto loyalist Yousaf Raza Gilani today as the nation’s new prime minister.

A close ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was shot and killed in southern Afghanistan in what appeared to be the latest in a wave of attacks by resurgent Taliban, a provincial government official said today.

The Pakistan government says it remains hopeful that kidnapped American reporter Daniel Pearl will be rescued alive.

Pakistani police are now examining Karachi’s notorious criminal gangs in their hunt for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has ruled out bowing to the demands of kidnappers who are threatening to kill an American journalist.