Pakistani sources provided CBS News with video showing the face of Baitullah Mehsud (see below).

Nancy Pelosi has a new counterpart in Pakistan. The National Assembly’s new speaker is Dr. Fehmida Mirza. While Pakistan has had a female prime minister twice before, Mirza is Pakistan’s first female NA speaker. Her election is a step toward Asif Zardari’s consolidation of the party as Mirza’s husband is a close friend of Zardari.

Public opinion of the United States in Pakistan is shaped by a number of factors, the most important of which are Washington’s policies toward Islamabad.  Perceptions in Pakistan of how America’s Muslim minority is treated also plays a role, albeit one that is secondary. For the benefit of our readers in Pakistan, below is a [...]

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson met with Aitzaz Ahsan today. She lobbied him to accept Pervez Musharraf’s latest offer to his opponents: abandon moves to restore Iftikhar Chaudhry to the Supreme Court and I’ll give up my power to dissolve the parliament. In a February Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Sen. Russ Feingold asked [...]

Pakistan’s new National Assembly convened for the first time today. Big wigs from the incoming governing alliance met before the session began. The seating arrangement was interesting and reflects what seems to be the emerging power dynamics in Pakistan. Asif Zardari was the center of gravity. Seated to his immediate left was Nawaz Sharif, and [...]

ARY One World, a leading Pakistani news channel, claims that the intended target of Saturday’s Islamabad bombing was the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations operations chief in Pakistan. Meanwhile, ABC News states that the FBI’s attache at the US embassy, injured in the blast, is the top FBI agent in the country. His name differs [...]

A blast went off this evening in Islamabad (F-6, Supermarket area) at the Luna Caprese, an Italian restaurant frequented by foreign diplomats and journalists (it serves alcohol). The Victims According to the director of the Poly Clinic hospital, at least one individual has been killed. She is a Turkish national who either worked a nurse [...]

Round Two of the Fahim-Zardari talks have just ended.  Fahim spoke to the media outside Zardari’s Islamabad home.  He said there’s no division within the People’s Party, but maintained that he’s the party’s candidate for prime minister.  This contradicts a GEO News report claiming that the PPP has decided that its next prime minister will be from Punjab (most [...]

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani paid a visit to the Line of Control in Kashmir today. An Inter-Services Public Relations press release states that Kayani “highlighted the national consensus that exists on Kashmir issue” and “reaffirmed [the] commitment of Pakistan Army to the Kashmir cause, in line with [the] aspirations of Pakistani nation.” [...]

A meeting between People’s Party Co-Chairman Asif Zardari and Vice Chairman Amin Fahim ended approximately an hour ago. Fahim left Zardari House in Islamabad without speaking to the media, but then spoke to GEO News by telephone. Though Fahim says there are no differences between him and Zardari, it appears both parties have not come [...]