European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says both sides have agreed to continue the discussions on June 18-19 in hopes of a breakthrough on international concerns about the Islamic Republic s ability to build atomic weapons.

Thursday s announcement caps two days of negotiations in Baghdad where at times it appeared Tehran would withdraw from the talks in frustration over the West s refusal so far to scale back tough economic sanctions on Iran.

Talking to a delegation of Supreme Court Bar Association led by its president Yasin Azad PM said that it is the PPP leadership which restored the constitution and strengthened institutions and democracy.

Prime Minister Gilani said progress of the country was possible only with the strengthening of democracy and sovereignty of any country cannot remain intact in the absence of a constitution.

He noted PPP was a federal political party working for the strengthening of democracy.

He observed PPP’s former Chairperson, Benazir Bhutto Shaheed preferred to remain in prison during the movement for the reinstatement of judiciary instead of compromising on her principles.

Prime Minister Gilani noted Benazir Bhutto handed the leadership of PPP to him, when she went into jail, following which a lawsuit was filed against him under Terrorism Act. Despite all this, he did not give up, the premier said. He also said, President PML-N, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif should learn from the past instead of criticizing the government.

President Supreme Court Bar Association, Yasin Azad said on the occasion that completion of the tenure of present government was indispensable for democratic stability, adding that general elections should be held when the time comes. Yasin Azad said Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar had got the prerogative of giving a protest-call to the lawyers.

Appreciating the services of lawyers, Prime Minister said he would soon inaugurate a housing colony for the lawyers whereas he also announced a grant of a hundred million rupees for the construction of a building for Supreme Court Bar, also allotting two buses to the bar. It is pertinent to mention the Prime Minister had also announced, last year, a grant of 350 million rupees for the building of Supreme Court Bar.
 

The petition had been moved by Dunya News senior anchor person Mubashar Luqman.

The counsel for the petitioner, Ali Zafer Advocate, adopted the stance that the Punjab government had committed corruption while distributing laptops among students, adding that failed students were awarded with laptops.

The petitioner also advocated that the laptops were distributed by such people who were neither high official nor were entitled to do so.

The petitioner also claimed that this move just aimed at securing political benefits, with the prayer that legal action should be taken against the people committed negligence and corruption.

After hearing preliminary arguments, the court has accepted the petition for hearing.
 

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged President Barack Obama to show “some courage” and apologize to Pakistan for the NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Salala and bring US-Pakistan relations back on track.

“Pakistan deserves an apology,” he said, noting that his current week-long visit to the United states was taking place at a crucial point in the relations between the two countries. The PPP chairman also called for an end to the drone attacks inside the Pakistani territory, saying they were illegal and violate international law and even the US’s war powers act.
 

Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan went abroad on one month leave and the sources have said that he has applied 15 days extension in his leave.

Meanwhile, SSP Thatha, Muhammad Ali Wasan, a close relative of Manzoor Wasan has been transferred. The sources said that all the names sent by Home Minister for appointment in police department have been removed from the list.
 

The National Economic Council (NEC) which met here under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has approved Rs 873 billion for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2012-13), with focus on water and power, social sector, health education, job creation and food security, for the socio-economic prosperity of the country.

Talking to media after the NEC meeting here on Thursday, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that government has planned a balanced development approach to equally develop Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas with other parts of the country.

The Minister said that the NEC also reviewed the progress of Federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of Rs 300 billion during the outgoing financial year 2011-12 and it was observed that 170 big development projects have been completed with 100 percent releases for the projects.

During the last four years, National Development Expenditure has been Rs. 2.2 trillion, including Rs 1 trillion by the Federal Government. Our Government increased the size of development expenditure from Rs 416 billion in 2008-09 to Rs 710 billion during the current fiscal year. This shows an average annual increase of 19.5% during this period.

The government was able to achieve growth rate in the range of 3.4% during the last two years. We know that this growth rate is not sufficient to achieve the overarching targets of poverty reduction and enhancing employment opportunities. For that we need at least a consistent GDP annual growth of over 7% over a long period of time.

He said that the government is proposing a GDP growth rate of 4.3% for the next fiscal year, which is quite achievable due to the base provided by the Government.

Another positive development is the falling inflation rate. The CPI which witnessed increase of 20.8 percent during 2008-9, is now reduced to around 11 percent. Similarly the food inflation has been brought down from 23.7 percent in 2008-09 to around 11 percent during the current fiscal year and estimated to be in single digit by the end of next fiscal year.
 

The United States on Thursday voiced concern over extrajudicial killings and religious intolerance in Pakistan, including in its troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan.

In an annual report on human rights, the State Department said that the "most serious human rights problems" in Pakistan included extrajudicial killings, torture and disappearances by both security forces and militants.

"Lack of government accountability remained a pervasive problem. Abuses often went unpunished, fostering a culture of impunity," it said.
In presenting the report, senior US official Mike Posner also highlighted an uptick in violations of religious freedom, including through controversial anti-blasphemy laws, as well as violence in Baluchistan.

"We re very concerned about the violence in Baluchistan. We re concerned about the effects of those who ve challenged some of the laws, like the blasphemy law," said Posner, the assistant secretary of state for human rights.

Posner raised the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in November 2010 for alleged blasphemy. Assassins last year killed Salman Taseer, the governor of the central province of Punjab, and Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs, who both defended Bibi and sought reforms.

In her own remarks on the report, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not name Pakistan but voiced concern over the treatment of religious minorities including the Ahmadi community.

The State Department report also accounted allegations of rights violations in Baluchistan — a highly sensitive issue for Pakistan.

The report, based largely on accounts by rights groups and officials, said that disappearances in Baluchistan "remained a problem" with the mutilated bodies of 355 missing people found between June 2010 and December 2011.

Baluch rebels rose up in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from oil, gas and mineral resources in the region. The unrest comes as the United States an Pakistan focus on Islamic extremism in lawless areas on the Afghan border.

The State Department report also said that prison conditions were "extremely poor" in Pakistan, with accounts of torture, sexual abuse, overcrowding, inadequate food and medical care, and discrimination against minority inmates.
 

US senators scandalized by Pakistan s jailing of a doctor for helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden voted on Thursday to cut aid to Islamabad by $33 million — one million for each year in the doctor s sentence.

"It s arbitrary, but the hope is that Pakistan will realize we are serious," said Senator Richard Durbin after the unanimous 30-0 vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"It s outrageous that they (the Pakistanis) would say a man who helped us find Osama bin Laden is a traitor," said Durbin, the Senate s number two Democrat.

The amendment was offered by Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat. Earlier in the week an appropriations subcommittee slashed aid to Islamabad and warned it would withhold more if Pakistan does not reopen supply routes for NATO soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, was sentenced to 33 years in jail Wednesday on charges of treason. He was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign, in which he collected DNA samples, that is believed to have helped the American intelligence agency track down bin Laden in a Pakistani town.

The al Qaeda leader was killed in the town of Abbottabad a year ago in a unilateral U.S. special forces raid that heavily damaged ties between Islamabad and Washington. Since then, there have been growing calls in the U.S. Congress to cut off some or all of U.S. aid.

Pakistan has been one of the leading recipients of U.S. foreign aid in recent years. Even after the cuts voted this week it still would receive about $1 billion in fiscal 2013, if the full Senate and House of Representatives approve.
 

An earthquake measuring 4.8 on Richter Scale jolted Quetta, Mastung, Sibbi and surrounding areas in the early hours of Friday. The epicenter of the quake was 90km north of Khuzdar.

Panic spread in the area after the quake and people came out of their houses. People were informed about the earthquake through aerial firing.

Meanwhile, seven people including four children were injured during a stampede after the earthquake. The injured were shifted to Civil Hospital for treatment.

Earlier, a moderate earthquake hit Kalat and its suburbs at 10:00pm on Thursday.
 

The White House declared Thursday that Pakistan had "no basis" for the harsh prison sentence decreed against Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi for his pivotal role in helping to track Osama bin Laden.

"We continue to see no basis for Dr. Afridi to be held," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. "I think it s an important point that any assistance rendered by anyone in the effort to bring Osama bin Laden to justice was assistance not against Pakistan, but against al-Qaida and against Osama bin Laden."

"We ve raised the issue with the Pakistani government, and we continue to have conversations with them about it," Carney said amid congressional outrage at Afridi s treatment.

The White House also said that the United States continues to work with Islamabad towards restoration of the Pakistani land routes that transport Nato supplies into landlocked Afghanistan but were shut six months ago in the wake of cross-border strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
 

President Asif Ali Zardari reached returned home on Thursday night after participating Chicago conference. President reached Karachi via London.

Tight security arrangements were made at the Karachi Airport on the occasion of President’s return. The sources informed that President Zardari will leave for Nawabshah after a night stay in Karachi.
 

Egyptians say they want their next leader to be honorable, smart, a knight, a man with a heart, a military man, a religious man, one who goes down and meets with the people. What they are really looking for is a superman.

Egypt s next president is facing an incredibly tall order of problems, from a tumbling economy and a beat-up security force to decrepit schools and hospitals that can t even provide enough incubators for premature babies.

Turning out in large numbers to vote for the first time in free and competitive presidential elections, a deeply engaged population have a lot of expectations from the leader that will replace the longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, whom they ousted in a popular uprising last year.

"We want a flawless president. We want him strong, just, respectable, clean, someone who feels for the poor. We basically want a superman," said Heba el-Sayed, a 42-year old teacher who was asking her colleagues outside a polling station in the popular neighborhood of Sayeda Zeinab who they voted for.

Egyptians have never had the chance to pick a leader. Mubarak, who was often derisively labeled as "pharaoh" by Egyptians, came to power in 1981 after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat at the hands of Islamic militants, mostly because he signed a peace treaty with Israel. He was re-elected multiple time after that, mainly in yes-or-no referendums in which he was the only candidate.

The pent-up anger that exploded against Mubarak s reign on January 25, 2011 built up over years because of festering corruption, which created a tight ruling clique around his family and cronies. It left a twisted economic development, that soared in terms of economic development indicators, but was unevenly distributed
leaving vast sections of the population up to 40 percent hovering near or fallen far below the poverty line.

Denying services and attention to the poor seemed to be a way the Mubarak s regime kept such classes in constant need of handouts and dependent on a patronage system, which doled out small benefits to those who cooperated and stayed under his control. This left a debilitated public health and education system, where only those who can pay can receive better services.

His authoritarian regime, which has maintained good relations with the world, relied heavily on security agencies whose widespread torture and abuse were the immediate reason behind the uprising.

The 18 days of protests that brought his fall were not limited to the poor or the abused, they brought in a broad spectrum of classes, angered over every aspect of the stagnation and worried that it would only deepen if Mubarak s son, Gamal, succeeded him as was widely expected.

So in the voting that began Wednesday and continues Thursday, the hundreds of thousands who lined up at the polls had a litany of dreams. Freedom to walk freely with girlfriends or boyfriends without police harassment. Improved sewage systems. Better education.

"I ve lived under Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak," Mahmoud Ahmed, a 70-year old businessman, said, listing Egypt s last three presidents as he waited to vote in the impoverished Cairo district of Basateen.

"What we want to see is someone with the firmness of Nasser, the political skills of Sadat," he said.

"And nothing at all from Mubarak."

He said he wants the next president s priority to hold a "real" trial for Mubarak reflecting how many Egyptians dismiss the current trial of the ousted leader as a sham.

Mubarak has been on trial for months over charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the uprising against him. As the proceedings have dragged, many have grown skeptical that the trial organized under the military rulers would constitute a fair trial. A verdict is expected on June 2 before the name of a president is announced.

For Yasmine Abdel-Rahman, a 22-year veiled student who was voting in the southern industrial district of Helwan, a religious leader can bring justice. She was voting for the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was Mubarak s most organized opposition and has seized its place as Egypt s most powerful political movement since his ouster.

"First thing he must do is get back the rights of all the martyrs. Many mothers  hearts are broken," she said.

Ali Ragab, a 27-year old who runs a photo shop in a rundown neighborhood of Maadi, agrees. But he thinks only a president that can rival the charisma and populist ideals of Nasser can do the job.

He s voting for Hamdeen Sabahi, a veteran opposition figure under Mubarak who proclaims Nasser as his role model. Sabahi has recently risen in polls, particularly among the working class and younger generations.

"I want a leader like Nasser, who looks after the poor. I wish those days come back," said the dreamy-eyed Ragab, born 15 years after Nasser s death.

"We need a leader that has extraordinary skills, one that has a heart, a big brain, and can play politics. He must be all that," he said as he helped other voters find their polling station.

Zeinab Nabil, a 28-year old mother, lost two of her triplets because of an unexplainable shortages of incubators in public hospitals. After their premature birth in September 2010, she ran from hospital to hospital for months trying to find incubators and proper care, only to be turned away.

Now she is indebted to the banks for over $8,000 from the salary of her husband, who works in another city. The only good luck she s had is that her landlord dropped her rent by a third after the revolution because of her economic woes.

"I want the president to spare other people my troubles. I want him to fix the hospitals and provide incubators," she said. "I want him to be just. I want him to walk among us. I want him to be human."

None of the 13 candidates running in the first round is likely to win outright. So a run-off will be held between the top two on June 16-17, with the victor announced June 21.

The president s powers have not yet been defined. The military rulers, the Islamist-dominated parliament and various groups and political parties of liberals and secularists have been locked in a struggle over how to write the constitution that will define the Egypt s political system, the role of religion and the place of the military in the future.

The explosive mix of high expectations and a power struggle between political factions will set the tone for the next president s entire term, supposed to be for four years. The stormy transition since Mubarak s fall has piled on even more demands, with some wanting the ruling generals held accountable for mismanagement and violence during the past 16 months.

And the new president will face the constant threat of protests from a politically charged population.

"There is now an open court in Tahrir. No matter who is elected," said Hamdi Abdel-Zaher, a 40 year old accountant, referring to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak uprising and months of protests since against the ruling military.

Fares Kamel, a 42-year old trader in a village on the outskirts of Cairo, said despite the destruction of the image of a pharaoh among Egyptians, many still yearn for it, seeing him as a savior.

"They want to be led," Kamel said. He thinks the president must be "a knight, who has a sword and is not afraid to use it or to die using it. We want someone with dignity, and not a filthy rich man. We don t want a thief."

"We want someone that loves this country, and satisfies people s needs. God be with him."