Pakistan’s Supreme Court has vowed to charge the prime minister with contempt for his failure to reopen an old corruption case against the president.

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 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 government named the members of a commission tasked with probing the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, including how it come about that the al Qaida chief was living in a Pakistani garrison city.

Pakistani commandos cornered a group of Taliban militants in an office building on a naval base in Karachi today after the insurgents raided the complex in an attack which destroyed two US-supplied surveillance aircraft, officials said.

Members of Pakistan’s parliament condemned the US today for the raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden on their soil.

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.

Pakistan's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is to brief parliament today on the US operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

PAKISTANI authorities still have three of Osama bin Laden’s wives and eight of his children in custody, a week after the US raid that killed the Saudi terrorist leader.

Islamic fanatics have murdered the only Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet for opposing the country’s savage blasphemy laws.

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.

LAWYERS showered the suspected killer of a prominent Pakistani governor with rose petals when he arrived at court yesterday and an influential Muslim scholars group praised the assassination of the outspoken opponent of laws that order death for those who insult Islam.

Thousands gathered under tight security in Pakistan today for the funeral of a provincial governor allegedly shot dead by a bodyguard.

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.

Pakistan’s ruling party struggled to keep its grip on power today after a coalition partner said it would join the opposition and threatened to bring the government down.

IN his final words before emergency heart surgery, Richard Holbrooke, the influential US diplomat who died on Monday following complications, urged an end to America’s nine-year old Afghanistan conflict.

THREE bombs ripped through a Shi’ite Muslim religious procession in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore yesterday, killing 25 people and wounding about 150 others, officials said.

PAKISTAN’S economic growth will plunge 2% due to the floods crisis and lead to massive job losses, the prime minister warned yesterday. Yousuf Raza Gilani said a fifth of the country’s irrigation infrastructure, livestock and crops were destroyed.

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

PAKISTAN battled yesterday to save areas threatened by more devastating flood waters as the United Nations warned that 800,000 people in desperate need of aid had been cut off by the deluge.

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.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to speed up assistance to flood-ravaged Pakistan yesterday as the 20 million people made homeless grew increasingly desperate, and new torrents inundated villages.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged the world to speed up aid to Pakistan.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in flood-ravaged Pakistan today to boost relief efforts as the 20 million people made homeless grew increasingly desperate.

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.

Pakistani flood survivors already short of food and water began the fasting month of Ramadan today, a normally festive, social time marked this year by misery and fears of an uncertain future.

PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari returned yesterday to flood-ravaged Pakistan, where he faced a storm of criticism for visiting Europe as his country was gripped by what his government called the nation’s worst natural disaster.

Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari returned to his flood-ravaged country and a storm of criticism today for visiting Europe amid the nation’s worst natural disaster.

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.

DESPERATE survivors crushed into relief centres yesterday after Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory as officials feared a food crisis could compound the humanitarian disaster.

Hopes that five-year-old British boy Sahil Saeed had been found were dashed today as the police chief leading the investigation in Pakistan confirmed the search is ongoing.

The five-year-old British boy allegedly kidnapped by gunmen in Pakistan has been found, it was reported today.

The mother of a British boy held captive in Pakistan today said she forgave the kidnappers as she made an emotional plea for the safe return of her son.

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.

The army has finished its operation against the Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal region, Pakistan’s prime minister said today, but may now pursue militants in another area along the Afghan border.

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.

A suicide bomber killed 19 people outside a Pakistan court today in the latest attack of an onslaught by Taliban reacting to the army offensive against them on the Afghan border.

Helicopter gunships attacked Taliban hideouts in north-west Pakistan today killing 10 suspected fighters after gunmen murdered two soldiers at a checkpoint in the area.