Taliban assassinated Benazir for challenging their writ: Zardari

September 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has revealed that former President General Pervez Musharraf had stepped down from the Presidency as a part of a deal which was facilitated by 'international and local' guarantors. "All international and local powers, which have stakes in the region, were guarantors of General Pervez Musharraf's negotiated resignation," Zardari told media person during an Iftar party here.

July 26th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that his country is not providing any terror safe havens to terror groups. Qureshi said Islamabad does not want the country's soil to be used for carrying out nefarious activities against any other nation.

July 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to transform his country into a 'great nation', saying no one will be allowed to challenge the writ of the constitution. Speaking at a dinner party that he hosted for PPP parliamentarians here, Zardari said he would achieve what other leaders before him have failed to do.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has once again blamed his predecessor Pervez Musharraf for death of his wife and former premier Benazir Bhutto, claiming that she died by a bullet not by the bomb that a Scotland Yard report identified as the cause. "I wish Musharraf had looked after my wife as I can look after myself," The Telegraph quoted Zardari, as saying.

July 5th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the offensive against the Taliban and other extremist groups being carried out in the Swat and Malakand Divisions would be concluded only when the region is completely sanitized. Zardari met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani here to discuss issues relating to the security situation in the country including the ongoing campaign against Taliban in Swat, Malakand and FATA.

June 22nd, 2009 NAUDERO - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to make every sacrifice to counter terrorism and insurgency, which have been challenging the "very existence of Pakistan." "This is not a small challenge, this is not a small war. This is a war of ideologies with people who are against the very existence of Pakistan.

June 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani Saturday vowed to fight terrorism till the end and said the war on terror is the best tribute to late leader Benazir Bhutto, the Online news agency reported. The leaders made the remarks on the occasion of the 56th birth anniversary of the former Pakistani prime minister who died in a terror attack during an election rally in Rawalpindi in 2007.

June 13th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said his country was fighting for its "survival" and promised that the ongoing offensive against the Taliban would continue "until the end". "We are fighting a war for our sovereignty," Zardari said in a late-night television address to the nation.

June 1st, 2009 LAHORE - The North West Frontier Province Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain has blamed the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal's (MMA) five year regime for helping the Taliban flourish and expand its writ in the province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Hussain also blamed religious parties such as the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl's (JUI-F) for its dual policies regarding the Taliban, and said that such an attitude will ultimately help the NATO and US troops' to invade Pakistan.

May 28th, 2009 LONDON - Assassinated Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's niece Fatima Bhutto has criticized Pakistan's leadership for creating all problems that the country is facing at present. Bhutto charged the state, especially its civil and military machinery, for creating the Taliban menace, whose expanding writ is threatening the existence of the country.

May 12th, 2009 NEW YORK - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari may have 'impressed' the United States by announcing an all out war against the Taliban and other extremists in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), but he does not seem to have much support back home, as only 19 percent of Pakistanis approve of his move. According to an opinion poll released by the Washington based International Republican Institute, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has emerged stronger than Zardari, in the current volatile situation, as 75 percent of Pakistanis support him.

May 10th, 2009 LAHORE - The World Population Federation has awarded the 'Best Mother Award' to the assassinated former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the Daily Times reports. The award was received by Benazir Farzana Raja on behalf of Bhutto's son Bilawal Bhutto.

April 28th, 2009 PESHAWAR - More than 30,000 people in Lower Dir have been displaced by a Pakistani military offensive to flush out Taliban militants. Thousands of terrified women and children left the area after troops and helicopter gunships launched Operation Black Thunder "Up to 30,000 people have left Maidan in Lower Dir district over the past few days," Iftikhar Hussain, the NWFP Information Minister, told reporters here.

April 26th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban's Swat chapter commander, Mullah Fazlullah, has said that the Taliban would accept only 'Islam's writ' in the Valley. Making an announcement over his illegal FM radio station, Fazlullah said that the Taliban would not hesitate in more sacrifices if sharia is not implemented by the government in the Malakand division, the Daily Times reports.

April 18th, 2009 KARACHI - Sindh National Front chief and late Benazir Bhutto's uncle Mumtaz Ali Bhutto has claimed that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is causing rift in the Bhutto clan. He advised Benazir Bhutto's younger sister Sanam Bhutto to beware of Zardari who according to him was using her to cause damage to the Bhutto family, The Nation reports.