A 14-year-old who championed Pakistani girls’ rights to an education has been shot in a suspected Taliban attack.

Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif today warned that the country was moving towards a state of political crisis.

THE Pakistani government yesterday authorised paramilitary troops to shoot anyone involved in serious violence in Karachi, where 37 people have been killed over the past two days, an official said.

Lawyers throughout Pakistan boycotted court proceedings, clashed with riot police and burned an image of President Gen Pervez Musharraf today in a protest against the removal of the country’s top judge.