Pakistan

Islamabad, Jan 11; PTI: The Pakistan government has decided to continue the travel ban on former president Asif Ali Zardari, his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah among other Pakistan Peoples Party leaders, a top minister said.

The decision, which prevents them from flying abroad, was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday, Dawn news reported.

Islamabad, Jan 7 :  A top court in Pakistan on Monday indefinitely postponed hearing of a petition filed by jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif seeking suspension of his sentence in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case

On December 24, 2018, Accountability Court II Judge Arshad Malik sentenced 69-year-old Sharif to seven years in prison along with a fine of Rs 1.5 billion and USD 25 million in the Al-Azizia corruption case, concluding a series of three court cases against the Sharif family in the high-profile Panama Papers scandal

ISLAMABAD, Dec 25 (APP):Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry Tuesday said the modus operandi of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and that of erstwhile president Asif Ali Zardari to plunder the national wealth were the same.

“Probably, the money laundering networks being run by the families of these two are the biggest in world,” he said addressing a news conference here.

KARACHI / ISLAMABAD, 24 Dec 2018; AA: A Pakistani court on Monday sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to seven years in jail in two corruption cases.

Sharif himself was present in the accountability court in the capital Islamabad to hear the much-anticipated verdict after a 15-month legal process in the cases, popularly known as Al Azizia Steel Mills.

KARACHI, Pakistan; 24 Dec 2018; AA: Pakistan's Supreme Court Monday summoned the country's former President Asif Ali Zardari for alleged involvement in a massive money laundering, according to the court records and local media.

Headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, three-member bench also barred Zardari and others accused from trading properties in the case at the Supreme Court's Lahore branch.

The court ordered them to submit their replies by December 31, local broadcaster Geo News reported.

Islamabad, Dec 17 (PTI) Pakistan on Monday released Indian prisoner Hamid Nihal Ansari, who was detained by the country's intelligence agencies in 2012 and subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.

Ansari, a 33-year-old Mumbai resident, was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on December 15, 2015. His three-year jail term ended on December 15, 2018 but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban say they are holding “another” meeting on Monday with U.S. officials, this time in the United Arab Emirates and also involving Saudi, Pakistani and Emirati representatives in the latest attempt to bring a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid offered no further details.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban say “another” meeting is to be held with the United States, this time in the United Arab Emirates and involving representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

The terse statement from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the meeting would be held Monday without offering details.

The State Department has neither denied nor confirmed previous meetings, but U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad previously said he has met with all Afghans involved in the 17-year war.

TEHRAN, December 9. /TASS/. Speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin made a proposal to hold a joint business forum of Russia and Pakistan with participation of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the meeting with Speaker of the National Assembly [the lower house of the Pakistani parliament - TASS] Asad Qaiser.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Washington’s special envoy tasked with finding a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s bloody 17-year-old war met Tuesday with Pakistani officials, and a Taliban official said four members from the group’s political office in the Middle Eastern state of Qatar were also in the Pakistani capital.

But the visit by the Taliban leaders, which included a former Taliban ambassador and a former governor who is also on a United Nations sanctions list, is “private,” the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.