Sharif endorsed as Pakistan’s new PM

Nawaz Sharif was endorsed as Pakistan's new prime minister Wednesday, beginning an unprecedented third term with the country facing a daunting array of problems ranging from crippling power cuts to Taliban militancy.
Some 13 years after he was deposed in a coup and sent into exile, the 63-year-old was formally chosen by a vote in the National Assembly and will take the oath from President Asif Ali Zardari later in the day.
But any joy at his remarkable comeback will be short-lived as Sharif gets to work on a mountain of challenges, starting with an energy crisis that has hamstrung the economy and made ordinary Pakistanis' lives a misery.
Sharif will make a short speech to the National Assembly, where his Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) holds a majority of the 342 seats, setting out his view on the problems facing the country.
Party officials say he is likely to lay out government priorities but not go into policy in any great detail, with a longer address to the nation expected in coming days.
The new premier has said tackling energy shortages, which rob the Pakistani economy of up to four percent of GDP, will be a priority and he has vowed to build new power plants.
Years of mismanagement, under-investment and corruption in the power sector have led to blackouts of up to 20 hours a day in the blistering heat of summer, when temperatures reach up to 50 Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
Analyst Imtiaz Gul said he expected a sober, conciliatory approach to government from Sharif.

PAKISTAN SAYS 1 DEAD IN BORDER CLASH WITH INDIA

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistan and India traded accusations Sunday of violating the cease-fire in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, with Islamabad saying that India staged a rare raid across the line dividing the two sides' forces and killed one of its soldiers. India said its troops had fired into Pakistan to retaliate for shelling that destroyed a home.

The accusation of a border crossing resulting in military deaths is unusual in Kashmir, where a ceasefire has held between these two wary rivals for a decade. Tensions over the disputed region are never far from the surface, however, as the nuclear-armed nations have fought two full-scale wars over it.

The Pakistani military's public relations office said in a statement that another Pakistani soldier was critically wounded in the incident. They said troops were still exchanging gunfire after a raid crossed the "line of control" dividing the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir in Haji Pir sector and raided a post called Sawan Patra, the military said.

The remote area where the incident occurred is up in Himalayan mountain peaks. The closest town of Bagh, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, is itself about 260 kilometers (160 miles) from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Col. Brijesh Pandey, a spokesman for the Indian army in Kashmir, said that Pakistani troops "initiated unprovoked firing" and fired mortars and automatic weapons at Indian posts early Sunday morning. He said Pakistani shelling had destroyed a civilian home on the Indian side.

"We retaliated only using small arms. We believe it was clearly an attempt on their part to facilitate infiltration of militants," Pandey said

India often accuses Pakistan of sending militants into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, often under cover of these types of skirmishes.

Mountainous Kashmir has been a flashpoint of violence between these two neighbors for decades. Both claim the entire region as their own, and the countries fought two full-scale wars over control of Kashmir and some minor skirmishes.

On Saturday, leaders of a Pakistan-based militant coalition held a rally in the city of Muzaffarabad near Kashmir, in which they pledged to continue the fight to gain control of the entire region.

The United Jihad Council is a coalition of 12 anti-India militant groups. Many of the groups were started with the support of the Pakistani government in the 1980s and 1990s to fight India for control of Kashmir. The rally was held to mark the Jan. 5, 1949 call by the United Nations for a referendum on Kashmir's fate.

A 2003 cease-fire ended the most recent round of fighting. Each side occasionally accuses the other of violating it by lobbing mortars or shooting across the LOC.

A number of Pakistani civilians were wounded in November due to Indian shelling, and in October the Indian army said Pakistani troops fired across the disputed frontier, killing three civilians.

But accusations that one side's ground forces actually crossed the LOC are rarer.

PAKISTANI OFFICIALS SAY US DRONES KILL 9 MILITANTS

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Suspected American drones fired several missiles into three militant hideouts near Afghan border on Sunday, killing nine Pakistani Taliban fighters, intelligence officials said.

The strikes targeted the group's hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region, the three officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The identity of the killed militants was not immediately known yet, but two important commanders of the Pakistani Taliban may be among them, they said.

It was the third suspected U.S. drone strike in five days. A strike late Wednesday night killed a top Pakistani militant commander, Maulvi Nazir, whose fighters focus on attacks against U.S. and allied NATO troops in Afghanistan. It was followed close on by another attack on Thursday.

Islamabad opposes the use of U.S. drones on its territory, but is believed to have tacitly approval some strikes in past. Washington wants Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, but Islamabad had been refusing to do so, saying it does not have enough troops and resources to do that.

In absence of such an operation, the U.S. relies more on drone strikes to take out militants. The program has killed a number of top militant commanders including Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was al-Qaida's No. 2 when he was killed in a June strike.

The dead of Nazir was likely to be seen in Washington as affirmation of the necessity of its controversial drone program. But it could also cause more friction in already tense relations with Pakistan because Nazir did not focus on Pakistani targets. Nazir was believed to have a nonaggression pact with the Pakistani army.

NEW ATTACKS ON POLIO TEAMS IN PAKISTAN KILL 2

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Gunmen shot dead a woman working on U.N.-backed polio vaccination efforts and her driver in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said, just a day after similar attacks across the country killed five female polio workers.

The killings are a major setback for a campaign that international health officials consider vital to contain the crippling disease but which Taliban insurgents say is a cover for espionage.

In Wednesday's attack, the woman and her driver were gunned down in the northwestern town of Charsadda, said senior government official Syed Zafar Ali Shah. He said gunmen targeted two other polio teams in the same town, but no one was wounded in those attacks.

Earlier in the day in the northwestern city of Peshawar, gunmen shot a polio worker in the head, wounding him critically, said Janbaz Afridi, a senior health official. There were also attacks Wednesday on polio workers in the cities of Charsadda and Nowshera, but no casualtties were reported there.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio is endemic. Militants accuse health workers of acting as spies for the U.S. and claim the vaccine makes children sterile.

The Taliban in the lawless northwestern tribal region also blame the U.S. drone strikes for their opposition to the vaccinations.

On Tuesday, gunmen killed five female polio workers in a spree of attacks in several southern and northwestern cities, prompting authorities to suspend the vaccination campaign in the southern Sindh province.

The three-day campaign, which started on Monday, continued in the northwest and elsewhere in the country.

Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attacks on Tuesday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's killings.

NEW PAKISTAN OUTREACH COULD AID AFGHAN PEACE DEAL

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistan has increased efforts to reach out to some of its biggest enemies in Afghanistan, a significant policy shift that could prove crucial to U.S.-backed efforts to strike a peace deal in the neighboring country.

The target of the diplomatic push has mainly been non-Pashtun political leaders who have been at odds with Pakistan for years because of the country's historical support for the Afghan Taliban, a Pashtun movement.

Many of the leaders fought against the Taliban when the fundamentalist Islamic group seized control of Afghanistan in the 1990s with Pakistan's help, and have accused Islamabad of maintaining support for the insurgents following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 - allegations denied by the government.

Many experts agree that Pakistan continues to see the Taliban as an ally, albeit a shaky one, in countering the influence of archenemy India in Afghanistan. But they also say Islamabad no longer believes the insurgents can take over the country or wants them to, a common misperception in the West.

"A Taliban victory on the other side of the border would give a huge boost to domestic militants fighting the Pakistani state," said Zahid Hussain, a journalist who has written extensively about Islamabad's war against the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan is also worried that unrest in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of most foreign troops in 2014 could provide the Pakistani Taliban with greater space to establish sanctuaries across the border.

The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have focused on different enemies. The Afghan Taliban battle local and foreign forces in Afghanistan, while the Pakistani Taliban mainly wage war against Islamabad.

These concerns have led Pakistan to the conclusion that a peace agreement that includes all Afghan groups is in its best interests, and contact with its traditional foes among the non-Pashtuns is necessary to achieve that goal, said Moeed Yusuf, South Asia adviser for the United States Institute of Peace.

"I think the fundamental point here is that there is a serious realization among some people who matter in Pakistan that they can't continue to put all their eggs in the Taliban basket because it is too shaky," said Yusuf. "This is a major shift, and a shift that I think everybody should welcome."

The outreach comes as Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. have stepped up efforts to breathe new life into the Taliban peace process, which has been hamstrung by distrust among all the parties involved.

The U.S. and Pakistan recently set up working groups to identify which Taliban leaders would be open to reconciliation and to ensure those holed up on Pakistani territory would be able to travel to the site of talks. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been in discussions to revive a joint commission set up to discuss the peace process.

Pakistan is seen as key to a peace deal because of its ties with the Taliban, and there is hope that Islamabad's increased engagement with non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan will facilitate the process.

"I think one of Pakistan's realizations is that if you want to play a bigger role to reconcile all these groups, you need to reach out to every group," said Rahimullah Yousufzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban. "They will be pushing the Taliban to share power with all these people, but it won't be easy because the Taliban aren't known to share power and the U.S. doesn't want to give them a major share."

Islamabad's historical support for the Taliban and other Pashtuns in Afghanistan, who make up about 40 percent of the population of 190 million, is partly rooted in the sizable number of Pashtuns who live in Pakistan. The ethnic group has always been seen as the best bet for furthering Pakistan's interests in the country.

Pakistan first advertised its overtures to non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan in February when Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar met with a range of ethnic Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara leaders during a visit to Kabul. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf followed suit in July when he traveled to Afghanistan and invited the group to the opening of the new Pakistani Embassy in Kabul.

There have also been less publicized contacts by Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul, Mohammad Sadiq, and the country's army and intelligence service, according to Pakistani and Afghan officials.

Khar said the policy shift had been in the works for a while but was like a steering a large ship in a new direction.

"You're not able to do it immediately," said the foreign minister.

Pakistan's powerful army is the true arbiter of the country's Afghan policy, but experts expressed doubt that the Foreign Ministry would have pushed ahead without the support of the generals, who have historically had the closest relationship to the Taliban.

One key Afghan leader who has met with the Pakistanis, Abdullah Abdullah, said he appreciated the country's recent attempt to reach out because it was done publicly. The influential politician, who was runner-up to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 election, said Pakistani intelligence officials contacted him in previous years, but he refused to speak with them because he did not believe communication should be carried out in secret.

"I see a lot of good in reaching out, in engagement, in dialogue," said Abdullah, who is half Pashtun but draws much of his support from the Tajik community.

The outreach has rattled the Taliban, who have warned Pakistani officials that they can't trust the non-Pashtuns, Yousufzai said.

Pakistan will have to overcome significant distrust among the non-Pashtuns. The government has old ties to some of the leaders, who worked with Pakistan in the 1980s to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan, but Islamabad's subsequent support for the Taliban created a huge amount of bad blood.

Despite that, the Pakistanis are hopeful.

"The Pakistani side's view of Afghan negotiations is that you kill on one day and kiss on the next, so while this will be very tough, they think that it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they may actually get somewhere," said Yusuf, the South Asia analyst.

PAKISTANI ARMY STRATEGY IN QUESTION AFTER ATTACKS

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) -- The Taliban's horrific attack on a female teenage activist in this scenic corner of Pakistan's northwest was the latest in a series of assassination attempts by militant sleeper cells in the area over the last year, each carried out with targeted shots to the head.

The insurgents activated their networks in the Swat Valley to take advantage of the army's decision to reduce its presence and accelerate the transition of security and governance to civilian authorities in the wake of a big offensive in 2009 to push out the Taliban.

The valley is in little danger of falling under the militants' control again anytime soon. But the resurgent threat raises questions about the army's ability to hand over control to civilians in Swat and other areas of the northwest where soldiers are fighting the Taliban, a fundamental part of the military's counterterror strategy.

Building effective civilian government and law enforcement is not only critical so the military can withdraw, but also to address local grievances related to development and justice that can fuel support for the insurgents.

The Taliban shot and wounded 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai as she was heading home from school in Swat's main town of Mingora on Oct. 9. The militants targeted the girl because she was an outspoken opponent of the group and promoted "Western thinking," such as girls' education.

The militants have carried out at least half a dozen other assassination attempts against their opponents in Swat since the end of last year, killing four people and wounding several others, said security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Haji Zahid Khan, a member of a major tribal council in Swat, was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in August but managed to survive. Khan criticized the army and police for not taking his case seriously enough, which he believes emboldened the militants.

"Had they arrested the culprits in my case, the network that was working could have been traced," said Khan. "The Malala incident could not have happened."

Investigations into the shootings indicated the attackers came from Afghanistan, where many militants fled following the army offensive in 2009, said Kamran Rehman Khan, the top government official in Swat. The militants worked with networks of sympathizers in Swat who provided weapons, ammunition, cell phones and other logistical support, he said.

The insurgents activated their networks to take advantage of the army's decision to reduce its presence in Swat. The military has decreased the 40 checkpoints it had in the area by almost half in the last year, although the number of troops in the valley has stayed the same, said Khan, the senior government official.

The army launched its offensive in Swat in the spring of 2009 with about 25,000 troops and originally planned to hand over control to civilian authorities and pull out over a period of about two years. That hasn't happened because the civilians haven't proven capable of handling security, say military officials.

The number of police in Swat has more than doubled to about 3,700, said Khan, but police in the country routinely lack sufficient resources and would likely have trouble keeping the militants at bay.

For this reason, the army still has about 12,500 soldiers in Swat and has plans to build permanent bases for some of them. The military hopes to reduce the number of troops by 50 percent next year, but experts are doubtful.

"The civilians don't feel confident enough to manage the area in the absence of the military, so the military will stay," said Pakistani defense analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi.

The inability to pass the baton to civilians in Swat raises questions about what the military plans to do in the adjacent tribal region, which serves as the main sanctuary for the Taliban in the country and is even less developed than Swat. The army has over 100,000 troops fighting in the semiautonomous region, and the experience in Swat indicates the generals will have difficulty pulling them out.

"I don't think they will be able to withdraw easily from the tribal areas because they have not been able to control them successfully and there is hardly any civilian structure to hand off to in these areas," said Rizvi.

The military may be more effective at handling security, but there are concerns its long-term presence could fuel resentment that could be exploited by the militants. Human rights organizations have accused the army of rounding up scores of suspected militants in Swat since the 2009 offensive and never producing them in court - allegations denied by the military. The practice "can create hatred against the army," said Khan, the tribal council member.

But that doesn't necessarily mean residents want the military to leave. Even with the recent attacks, security in Swat is far better than it was a few years ago when the Taliban routinely beheaded people and left them in the streets as a warning.

"If the army goes," said Dolat Khan, a drugstore owner in Swat, "there could be a civil war."

PAKISTANI POLICE MAKE ARRESTS IN SHOOTING OF GIRL

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani police have arrested a number of suspects in the case of a 14-year-old girl shot and wounded by the Taliban for promoting education for girls and criticizing the fundamentalist Islamic movement, officials said Friday.

The shooting of Malala Yousufzai along with two classmates while they were on their way home from school Tuesday horrified people in Pakistan and internationally. It has been followed by an outpouring of support for a girl who earned the enmity of the Taliban for publicizing their acts and speaking about the importance of education for girls.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying that the girl was promoting "Western thinking." Late on Thursday, a spokesman for one of the group's branches in the country's north decided two months ago to kill Yousufzai in a carefully planned attack after her family ignored repeated warnings.

Police have been questioning people in the town of Mingora, in the Swat Valley, where the shooting took place.

Mingora police chief Afzal Khan Afridi said arrests had been made, but he declined to give any details about the number of people detained or what role they're suspected of having in the shooting. He said he did not want to endanger the ongoing investigation.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters Friday that the two gunmen who staged the attack were not among those arrested, but he said investigators had identified the masterminds of the shooting and efforts were under way to capture all those involved.

The Taliban spokesman, Sirajuddin Ahmad, said Yousufzai's family had been warned three times - the most recent warning coming last week - before the decision was made to kill her.

Ahmad said local Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah and his deputies selected three attackers, including two trained sharpshooters, who carefully studied the girl's route home from school.

Even before the Taliban took over the Swat Valley, Fazlullah's radio broadcasts spread fear among residents in the area. The group first started to exert its influence in 2007 and quickly extended its reach to much of the valley by the next year. They set about imposing their will on residents by forcing men to grow beards, preventing women from going to the market and blowing up many schools - the majority for girls.

Malala wrote about these practices in a journal for the BBC under a pseudonym when she was just 11. After the Taliban were pushed out of the valley in 2009 by the Pakistani military, she became even more outspoken in advocating for girls' education. She appeared frequently in the media and was given one of the country's highest honors for civilians for her bravery.

Fazlullah, along with much of the Swat Taliban's top leadership, escaped the offensive and is believed to be operating from a base in eastern Afghanistan and sending fighters back across the border to attack northwest Pakistan.

But there are indications that he was trying once again to make inroads into the area.

Between April and June, Pakistani authorities arrested nearly 100 militants in the Swat Valley, said two security officials and a senior government official.

One of those arrested was a woman identified as Naheed Bibi, who was married to Fazlullah and had been sent by him to the valley to help reactivate militant sleeping cells there, the officials added.

Her interrogation led security officials to over 60 telephone numbers of SIM cards she and her aides had bought in various northwestern cities. By monitoring all the numbers, authorities rounded up the militants - including several would-be suicide bombers - and a large number of weapons and explosives was also seized, the officials said.

The officials did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Pakistanis across the country held services to pray for Yousufzai's recovery Friday. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf visited the hospital in Rawalpindi where she's being treated to pay his respects and check on her condition.

As the school Yousufzai attended reopened, children and teachers tried to come to terms with what happened to their star pupil, shot in a bus roughly 300 meters (yards) from her classrooms. Police were deployed around the school, but many students still stayed away.

"We have decided to open the school after two days to overcome the fear among our students that gripped them due to the attack," said one of the teachers, Zafar Ali Khan.

The school is owned and operated by the teenage activist's father, who takes great pride in his daughter's accomplishments and is a champion of education for girls.

The girl was initially airlifted from Mingora to a military hospital in the frontier city of Peshawar, where doctors removed a bullet from her neck. On Thursday, she was transferred to a hospital in Rawalpindi, where the Pakistani army is headquartered near the capital, Islamabad.

Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa said she is being kept on a ventilator and is in stable condition. Bajwa said the bullet entered her head and went into her neck toward her spine, but it was too soon to say whether she had any significant head injury.

"Her blood pressure is normal. Heartbeat is normal, and thanks to God, her condition is satisfactory," Bajwa said.

PAKISTAN BLOCKS ANTI-US PROTEST IN TRIBAL REGION

TANK, Pakistan (AP) -- The Pakistani military blocked a convoy carrying thousands of Pakistanis and a small contingent of U.S. anti-war activists from entering a lawless tribal region along the border with Afghanistan on Sunday to protest American drone strikes.

The group, led by cricket star turned politician Imran Khan and his political party, was turned back just miles from the border of South Waziristan. After an hour of fruitless negotiations, Khan announced that the caravan would backtrack to the city of Tank, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) away. There, he delivered a speech to the crowd of about 10,000.

Khan has harshly criticized the Pakistani government's cooperation with Washington in the fight against Islamist militants. He has been especially outspoken against U.S. drone strikes targeting militants and has argued that Islamabad's alliance with Washington is the main reason Pakistan is facing a homegrown Taliban insurgency. He has suggested before that militant activity in Pakistan's tribal areas will dissipate when the U.S. ends the war across the border in Afghanistan.

"We want to give a message to America that the more you carry out drone attacks, the more people will hate you," Khan told the crowd.

The anti-American sentiment, always high in Pakistan, was evident in the crowd that waved banners saying "Down with America," and "The friend of America is the traitor of the nation."

Pakistan's tribal regions, such as North and South Waziristan, border Afghanistan and serve as bases for militant groups such as the Taliban to stage raids across the border into Afghanistan.

The protest convoy of about 150 cars set out on Saturday from the capital Islamabad, traveled 400 kilometers (250 miles) and then stopped overnight in the city of Dera Ismail Khan. The plan for the second and final day was to travel another 120 kilometers (70 miles) to reach Kotkai in South Waziristan. But the military stopped the convoy in the town of Kawar.

Khan told the rally that they wanted to continue their journey to Kotkai, but the army said it was too late, and going inside South Waziristan at night was dangerous. Khan said he didn't want to put his supporters in danger, so he turned the rally around to Tank.

A spokesman for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Umar Younus, said the army stopped the convoy at a checkpoint and despite insistence by PTI leaders they would not allow the convoy to go any farther.

Regardless of whether he was able to enter the tribal region, Khan portrayed the two-day motorcade as a success.

"We have taken the voice of the people of Waziristan to the world," he said.

Thousands of supporters had turned out along the route to cheer on the convoy, which stretched about 15 kilometers (9 miles), including accompanying media. Some of those packed into the vehicles waved flags for Khan's political group and chanted: "We want peace."

Video on Pakistani media showed barricades with hundreds of police in riot gear, a sign of concerns that the motorcade would be attacked or become unruly.

Around three dozen Americans from the U.S.-based anti-war group CODEPINK joined Khan for the march. The American protesters say the U.S. drone strikes, contrary to the claims of American officials, have terrorized peaceful tribes living along the border and killed many innocent civilians - not just Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

The convoy aimed to throw a spotlight on the drone attacks, which many Pakistanis oppose as violations of the country's sovereignty that often kill civilians. The U.S. says its drone strikes are necessary to battle militants that Pakistan has been unable or unwilling to control.

Critics denounced the rally as a piece of cheap theater designed to drum up votes for Khan's political party ahead of next year's elections.

"A made-for-TV dog and pony show that will be high on drama and low on substance will resonate with Khan's base," wrote Pakistani newspaper columnist Cyril Almeida in the English-language newspaper Dawn Sunday.

The rally was originally intended for South Waziristan, a tribal region where the Pakistani military has been battling a violent uprising by the Taliban, and factions of the Taliban threatened to attack the march. On Saturday, a statement from a Taliban faction said to be based in eastern Punjab province warned that militants would target the protesters with suicide bombings.

The main faction of the Pakistani Taliban, which is based in South Waziristan, issued a statement Friday calling Khan a "slave of the West" and saying that the militants "don't need any sympathy" from such "a secular and liberal person."

The former cricket star long had a reputation as a playboy, but in recent years he has said he has grown stronger in his Muslim faith. He also has used attacks on the U.S. drone program as a means of gaining attention and esteem in Pakistan. His popularity surged in recent years in Pakistan, where the government, led by the Pakistan People's Party of Asif Ali Zardari, has disappointed many.

In the capital of Islamabad, the U.S. Embassy warned its citizens about possible terrorist attacks Sunday in the city on key government installations and major hotels such as the Marriott and the Serena. The embassy said Pakistan's Interior Ministry had issued an alert about the threats, and urged American citizens to avoid these areas.

The U.S. government already advises its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Pakistan, citing the threat of militant groups as well as protests such as the violent ones that shook the country earlier this month against an anti-Islam film made in the U.S.

The film has outraged Muslims around the world for its vulgar portrayal of Islam's Prophet Muhammed, and protests in Pakistan have been especially intense. About 2,000 supporters of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami party rallied in the southern port city of Karachi Sunday against the film.

CIVILIANS STRUGGLE TO CHECK PAKISTAN ARMY'S POWER

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- The footage was startling: A group of what appeared to be Pakistani soldiers gunning down several blindfolded men in a forested area. As the clips circulated online and the U.S. threatened to cut aid, Pakistan's army chief promised a full investigation and punishment for any wrongdoers.

Two years later: Silence.

What has the inquiry found? The army won't say. Was anyone punished? Not a word. Some rights activists question whether an investigation even took place.

Pakistan has spent nearly five years under civilian rule, an unusually long stretch for a 65-year-old country prone to military coups. But as the firing squad footage and several other prominent scandals suggest, the army remains largely unwilling to hold itself accountable to the public. This despite some pressure from more active media and judiciary and despite hopes that the military would rethink its ways after the humiliation it suffered following the unilateral U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The army's lack of transparency and resistance to civilian oversight could cripple Pakistan's transition to a healthy democracy, something the United States says the country needs. But the Americans can't protest too much: Washington needs the Pakistani army's cooperation as the war in Afghanistan winds down and it already struggles to balance a strained relationship as it presses the army to root out anti-U.S. insurgents hiding in Pakistan.

"It's important to understand that generally the Pakistani military is very careful about not hurting its own people," especially as they fight Islamists trying to overthrow the state, said Ayesha Siddiqa, a prominent Pakistani defense analyst. Most ordinary Pakistanis feel powerless to take on the army, and when it comes to reining in the men in uniform, the still-weak civilian government "can't do anything," she said.

The two video clips that spawned the supposed inquiry fueled allegations that the military carried out numerous extrajudicial killings in the Swat Valley during a major offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in 2009. Bloodied corpses of suspected militants were found dumped on the streets for months after the army retook the valley from the Taliban. The army denied those killings.

The grainy footage, which came to light in September 2010, is believed to have been recorded in Swat. A nearly six-minute clip shows men in Pakistani military uniforms lining up six blindfolded men in civilian clothes, then shooting them. After a voice says "finish them one by one," one apparent soldier walks over to the men and shoots them again. The other, 53-second clip shows only the executions.

On Oct. 8, 2010, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani announced an inquiry into the matter. He noted the probe would consider if the footage was even real, but also said, "It is not expected of a professional army to engage in excesses against the people whom it is trying to guard against the scourge of terrorism."

In the two years since, The Associated Press has repeatedly asked the army about the status of the probe. At most, the answer has been that it's under way. Attempts to get army comment for this story led nowhere.

Other cases further illustrate the difficulty in holding the army accountable.

A year before the execution videos surfaced, a clip on YouTube and Facebook appeared to show Pakistani soldiers beating and whipping four militant suspects. The army promised to investigate but has never released any findings.

In mid-September, Kayani announced that the military would take over the investigation and prosecution of three retired generals accused in a financial scam that was being probed by a parliamentary committee. The three were "recalled" into the army, apparently so they could be shielded from civilian courts.

And then there's the "Abbottabad commission," the panel tasked with finding out what bin Laden was doing in Pakistan and what led to the May 2011 U.S. raid that killed him. The panel's creation was hailed because it was technically independent of the military. But its report has been repeatedly delayed, and if it is ever released, many doubt anyone in the security establishment will be held to account - at least not in public.

The United States is legally bound to cut aid to foreign military units that violate human rights, and American officials have said the execution clips prompted a cutoff of funding to multiple Pakistani army units whose identities are classified.

That doesn't mean net funding for Pakistan goes down, however - the money can simply be shifted to other Pakistani units. The nuclear-armed country is of such strategic importance that American leaders say it is difficult to withhold funds. In total, Pakistan receives roughly $1 billion in economic aid and $1 billion in military assistance each year.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, who spearheaded the legislation that imposed the human rights requirement on foreign aid, is said to have had trouble getting answers on the execution videos. The senator "has repeatedly requested information from representatives of the Pakistani government on the status of the promised investigation of this war crime, but so far has received nothing," said his spokesman, David Carle.

Ali Dayan Hasan, head of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, is not convinced the military even pursued a proper probe.

Pakistan's civilian government, led by the party of President Asif Ali Zardari, remains far too weak to take the army head on over accountability. At this point, the government is focused on surviving, and it has to tread carefully around the generals.

Analysts said army leaders are reluctant to be more transparent to civilian authorities largely because of concerns about morale amid the fight against militants, who are themselves notorious for ruthless tactics. The Pakistani military says thousands of its soldiers have died in the conflict since 2001. It's entirely possible soldiers are punished in private for abuses, but to publicize that would, again, undermine morale.

The army also doesn't necessarily trust the civilian institutions. The military often prefers to hold alleged insurgents indefinitely, even secretly, for fear civilian courts, which rarely convict terrorism suspects, would set them free.

Still, a more assertive judiciary and a more technologically advanced media landscape are bringing signs of change.

In August last year, an anti-terror court sentenced to death a soldier who shot and killed an unarmed youth as he begged for mercy in the southern port city of Karachi. The incident was caught on videotape and repeatedly broadcast by TV stations, triggering enough public anger the military could not ignore it.

In January, a government-appointed commission released a report on the death of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, who was killed after telling friends he was threatened by the country's premier intelligence agency, the military-led Inter-Services Intelligence.

The report said it did not have enough evidence to blame the ISI in the killing but that the agency should be more "law-abiding." The mere issuing of a report was seen by rights advocates as a mini-victory.

The judiciary has also increasingly demanded the army and intelligence agencies account for suspects allegedly held in secret, believed to number in the thousands. Some have even been freed due to the court's demands, though no one in the security establishment is known to have been punished.

Sustained protests by victims' relatives helped in pushing for the release of some of the missing, said Hasan.

But so far there isn't a widespread public outcry for accountability from the military as the fight against Islamic militants continues.

Even liberals "don't want too much focus on human rights in a situation like Swat," said Babar Sattar, a legal expert. "There is that sense that if you put too much focus on those issues it'll make it harder for the army to fight."

PAKISTAN: ATTACK ON HINDUS PROMPTS BLASPHEMY CASE

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- A group of Muslims suspected of ransacking a Hindu temple in southern Pakistan may be charged with blasphemy, police said Sunday. The case is a rare twist on the use of the country's harsh blasphemy laws, which are more often invoked against supposed offenses to Islam as opposed to minority faiths.

The laws, sections of which carry the death penalty or life imprisonment, have drawn renewed international scrutiny this year after a young Christian girl in Islamabad was alleged to have desecrated the Muslim holy book, the Quran. A Muslim cleric now stands accused of fabricating evidence against the girl, who has been freed on bail and whose mental capacity has been questioned.

Police officer Mohammad Hanif said the anti-Hindu attack took place Sept. 21. The government had declared that day a national holiday - a "Day of Love for the Prophet" - and called on people to demonstrate peacefully against a U.S.-made anti-Islam film that has sparked protests throughout the Muslim world. Those rallies took a violent turn in Pakistan, and more than 20 people were killed.

Hanif said dozens of Muslims led by a cleric converged on the outskirts of Karachi in a Hindu neighborhood commonly known as Hindu Goth. The protesters attacked the Sri Krishna Ram temple, broke religious statues, tore up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, and beat up the temple's caretaker, Sindha Maharaj.

"The attackers broke the statues of (Hindu deities) Radha, Hanuman, Parwati and Krishna, and took away the decorative gold ornaments," Maharaj said. "They also stormed my home and snatched the gold jewelry of my family, my daughters."

Maharaj and other Hindu leaders turned to the police, who registered a case against the cleric and eight other Muslims. But none of the suspects had been found as of Sunday, Hanif said.

The police officer said the case against the attackers was registered under Section 295-A of the blasphemy laws, which covers the "outraging of religious feelings." That section of the law can carry a fine or up to 10 years imprisonment, but, if the case were to proceed, it's unclear exactly what punishment would be imposed.

Court decisions in the past have often confused what penalties should be applied in blasphemy cases in Pakistan. And although many blasphemous acts are said to require the death penalty, Pakistan is not known to have executed anyone under the law. Still, many of the accused have been killed by extremists outside the courts.

Human rights activists say the blasphemy laws are too broad and vague, and that they often are used by people seeking to settle scores with rivals, or as a means of targeting Christians, Hindus and other members of minority religions. Pakistan has some 180 million people and is 95 percent Muslim.

Islamic conservatism, as well as extremism, is on the rise here, and even speaking out against the blasphemy laws can put people in danger. Two prominent politicians, including the sole Christian member of the federal Cabinet, were assassinated in 2011 for urging reform of the law.

PAKISTANIS PROTEST AGAINST ANTI-ISLAM FILM

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Thousands of members of Pakistan's radical Islamic groups rallied on Saturday in the southern city of Karachi against an anti-Islam film that has sparked violence across the Muslim world.

"Innocence of Muslims" has enraged many Muslims for deprecating the Prophet Muhammad. At least 51 people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, have been killed in violence linked to the film, which also has renewed debate over freedom of expression in the U.S. and in Europe.

Chanting "Down with America" and demanding expulsion of the U.S. ambassador, the participants gathered in the heart of the city's business district, where prominent radical leader Muneebur Rehman demanded stern punishment for the filmmaker. But he asked the protesters to remain peaceful.

Protests are dying down in many countries but continue in Pakistan, home to several powerful radical movements. Since 23 people died in Karachi last week during demonstrations against the film, however, marchers appear to have heeded calls by clerics and other public figures to avoid violence.

Rehman also urged the Pakistan government to seek U.N. help in making new international laws to "protect the honor" of Islam's religious personalities.

Senior police officer Asif Ijaz Sheikh estimated that the crowd numbered more than 15,000. He said the protesters dispersed peacefully.

A similar rally was also expected in Islamabad and some other parts of the country later Saturday.

POLICE: ROADSIDE BOMB KILLS 15 IN NW PAKISTAN

TIMERGARAH, Pakistan (AP) -- A roadside bomb ripped through a minibus in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border Sunday, killing 15 passengers and wounded 12 others, police said.

The bomb was buried in a dirt road in Lower Dir district and apparently detonated by remote control as the minibus passed by, said Ejaz Abid, the local police chief. There was little left of the vehicle after the explosion, just a mass of crumpled metal.

Two children were among the dead, said Mahmood Aslam, a local government official. The vehicle was not carrying any tribal elders, anti-Taliban militia commanders or others from the area frequently targeted by militants, he said.

"I don't understand why the passenger vehicle was targeted," he said.

Dilawar Khan, a survivor, said he heard a huge blast, and the passengers suddenly dove to the ground.

"I was listening to people's cries but unable to see anything as dust and smoke engulfed the air," said Khan. "Then I found myself in the hospital with my leg and hand bandaged," he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban has carried out many similar bombings in the northwest.

Pakistan suspends NATO supply route over security

Pakistan has temporarily stopped NATO supply trucks crossing its northwestern border into Afghanistan over security concerns due to fears of Islamist attacks, officials said Thursday.

Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a convoy of NATO supply trucks, killing a driver, in the town of Jamrud on the outskirts of the main northwestern city Peshawar.

“Movement of NATO vehicles has been temporarily suspended since Wednesday evening to beef up security,” a paramilitary official told AFP.

“We have launched a search operation in the hills surrounding Jamrud,” the official added.

Local administration official Bakhtiar Khan confirmed the supply route had been suspended due to “security reasons”.

“Intelligence officials have informed the authority that attacks may occur on NATO vehicles this week and in the light of this a security plan is being chalked out,” Khan told AFP.

He said the NATO route would “resume very soon,” but that until then trucks carrying supplies for the 130,000-strong U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan had been told not to approach the border.

PAKISTAN REFUSES TO REOPEN PRESIDENTIAL GRAFT CASE

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's government told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it will not reopen an old corruption case against the president, defying a judicial order that has brought down one prime minister and threatens his replacement.

The crisis has roiled Pakistan's political system for months, distracting attention from what many Pakistanis believe are more pressing problems, such as the country's ailing economy and fight against the Taliban.

The dispute centers on a graft case against President Asif Ali Zardari dating back to the late 1990s in Swiss court, a time when he became known as "Mr. 10 percent" for his reputation of demanding kickbacks on government contracts.

The Pakistani Supreme Court has demanded the government write a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to reopen the case. The government has refused, saying Zardari enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office.

The court convicted former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of contempt and ousted him from office in June for refusing to write the letter. The ruling Pakistan People's Party rallied support to elect a new premier, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, and has remained defiant.

Pakistan's attorney general, Irfan Qadir, appeared before the court Wednesday and told the judges that Ashraf also refused to reopen the case because of the president's immunity.

"Your order is not implementable," said Qadir.

He accused the lead judge, Asif Saeed Khosa, of being biased against the president and said he should recuse himself from the proceedings — a demand rejected by Khosa.

Many government supporters have accused the Supreme Court of relentlessly pursuing the case because of bad blood between Zardari and Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Khosa demanded the new prime minister write the letter to the Swiss, but also seemed to soften the court's stance, saying the judges would respect the president's immunity if the government obeyed their order.

He also gave the government more time to come up with a solution. Wednesday was the initial deadline for the government to say whether it would fulfill the court's order, but Khosa adjourned the hearing until Aug. 8.

The judge's somewhat softer stance could be a reaction to criticism of the court for threatening to bring down the first civilian government poised to finish its five-year term in the country's history. Past governments were toppled by direct or indirect intervention by the country's powerful army, often with help of the judiciary. The current government's term ends in early 2013.

It's unclear whether the judge's comments will alter the government's stance. Zardari has said in the past that his government would never write the letter.

"I will make a genuine and serious effort to solve this issue," said Qadir.

The case against Zardari relates to kickbacks he and his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, allegedly received from Swiss companies when Bhutto was in power in the 1990s. They were found guilty in absentia in Swiss court in 2003.

Zardari appealed, but Swiss prosecutors dropped the case after the Pakistani parliament passed an ordinance giving the president and others immunity from old corruption cases that many agreed were politically motivated.

The bill was decried by many in Pakistan, who saw it as an attempt to subvert the law. The Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 2009 and ordered the government to write a letter to Swiss authorities requesting they reopen the case.

Also Wednesday, militants coming from Afghanistan armed with assault rifles attacked a paramilitary checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, wounding two soldiers, officials said.

The attack occurred in Dalasa village in the Kurram tribal area, said Rasheed Khan, a local government official.

At least 20 militants were involved in the attack, Pakistani military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The militants escaped across the border after the attack, and the Pakistani army fired artillery in retaliation, said Khan.

The Afghan government said Sunday that four civilians died when hundreds of shells and rockets fired from Pakistan hit homes along frontier areas where insurgents have staged cross-border attacks.

The government did not openly blame the Pakistani military for the artillery barrage, but they have done so in the past.

Both countries criticize each other for not doing enough to stop cross-border attacks by militants.

NATO troop supplies set to resume via Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Trucks carrying NATO troop supplies are set to resume shipments to Afghanistan on Wednesday following a deal between the U.S. and Pakistan that ended Islamabad's seven-month blockade.

A customs official at one of Pakistan's two main border crossings - Chaman in southwestern Baluchistan province - said he received orders from the government to begin allowing trucks to cross into Afghanistan at 2 p.m. local time. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Officials at the Torkham crossing in the Khyber tribal area were still waiting to receive word from the government, said customs officer Asfandyar Khan.

Pakistan agreed to reopen the supply line Tuesday after the U.S. said it was sorry for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. The attack prompted Pakistan to close the route and severely damaged already strained relations between the two countries.

Pakistan's Cabinet on Wednesday endorsed the decision to reopen the route, which was made by senior civilian and military officials.

The accord will help patch up the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, which is crucial for American efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, but the two continue to have serious differences that threaten prospects in the war-torn country.

The U.S. could save hundreds of millions of dollars since Pakistan's blockade had forced Washington to rely more heavily on a longer, costlier route that runs into Afghanistan through Central Asia. Pakistan is also expected to gain financially since the U.S. intends to free up $1.1 billion in military aid that had been frozen for the past year.

But the deal carries risks for both governments.

Pakistan is likely to face a domestic backlash given rampant anti-American sentiment in the country and the government's failure to force the U.S. to stop drone attacks and accede to other demands made by parliament.

The Pakistani Taliban vowed to attack trucks carrying NATO supplies once they started moving, calling the government a slave to the U.S.

President Barack Obama risks exposing himself to criticism from Republicans, including presidential challenger Mitt Romney, who contends the administration is too quick to apologize in foreign policy matters. Anger at Pakistan is high in Washington because of the country's alleged support for militants fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

This risk led the U.S. to hold off apologizing to Pakistan for months, despite repeated demands from Islamabad. In the end, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was "sorry" for the deaths of the Pakistani troops, but didn't offer the "unconditional apology" demanded by the country's parliament.

Clinton reiterated that mistakes on both sides led to the airstrikes on two army posts on the Afghan border, disputing Pakistan's claim that the U.S. was wholly at fault and carried out the attack deliberately.

Pakistan also demanded much higher transit fees during the months of negotiations - up to $5,000 per truck - but agreed in the end to maintain the $250 price levied before the attack. The U.S. offered extensive road construction projects to sweeten the deal, although officials have not provided specific figures.

Critics of the U.S. in Pakistan will likely seize on the lukewarm apology, static fees and continued American drone strikes to accuse Islamabad of selling out to Washington.

The most vocal opposition to reopening the NATO supply line has come from a collection of hardline Islamist religious leaders and politicians known as the Difah-e-Pakistan, or Defense of Pakistan Council.

The group, which many suspect was supported by the Pakistani army to pressure the U.S., plans to launch a protest campaign against the supply route decision, said chairman Maulana Samiul Haq.

"It is an insult to our nation," he said. "The rulers have put national interest at stake just to please America."

Bomb targeting government bus in Pakistan kills 18

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A bomb tore through a bus carrying government employees and other civilians in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing 18 people in an attack that served as a reminder of the continued militant threat despite a significant drop in violence over the past year, officials said.

The bus was near the city of Peshawar when the bomb planted inside it exploded, almost completely destroying the back half of the colorfully decorated vehicle. The dead included six women, said senior police officer Tahir Ayub Khan. Another 35 people were wounded in the explosion, he said.

Jalal Khan, 14, was standing in the aisle of the crowded bus when the bomb went off and his right arm was slashed by a piece of metal.

"We all fell on the floor of the bus, and people were crying for help," said Khan, while receiving treatment at a local hospital. "I was unable to see anything because there was a lot smoke, and I was having trouble breathing."

Peshawar is located near Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants and their allies in the country. The city has suffered scores of bomb attacks over the past five years, but violence has fallen in recent months. The drop is partly due to Pakistani military operations against the Taliban in various parts of the tribal region.

Residents frantically shuttled bloodied victims from the bombing to the hospital in taxis, trucks and other private vehicles in the aftermath of the attack, local TV footage showed. Officials wheeled one woman into the hospital on a stretcher. She was covered by a blanket, and her clothes were soaked with blood.

Mohammed Javed, 35, was injured in the shoulder during the attack, but most of the blood soaked into his clothes came from other victims, he said.

"Luckily I was in the front part of the bus, and the bomb went off in the back," Javed said at the hospital. "Something hit me in the shoulder, but I kept my senses and started helping badly hurt people."

The bus departed from a government office in Peshawar and was headed for the nearby city of Charsada, said Javed. Both government employees and ordinary civilians normally used the bus, he said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban have carried out hundreds of similar bombings across the country. The group is waging a bloody insurgency seeking to overthrow the government, partly because of its alliance with the United States. The Pakistani military has fought back but has had trouble clearing areas of the tribal region of militants, and they continue to strike back.

Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Peshawar is the capital, said the government would relentlessly target the militants if they did not give up their fight.

"For the sake of protecting people, we are always ready for negotiation, but if the terrorists are not ready to stop, the only option left for the government is to go for a massive operation against the terrorists wherever they are," said Hussain.

Pakistan: Al-Qaida No. 2 at house hit by US drone

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan has evidence that al-Qaida's second in command was in a house hit by a U.S. drone strike in the country's northwest tribal region, but it is unclear whether he was killed, intelligence officials said Tuesday.

U.S. officials have said they were targeting Abu Yahya al-Libi in Monday's strike in Khassu Khel village in the North Waziristan tribal area and were "optimistic" he was among those killed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the drone program.

If al-Libi is confirmed killed, he would be the latest in the dozen-plus senior commanders removed in the clandestine U.S. war against al-Qaida since Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden last year.

Militants and residents in the area told Pakistani agents that al-Libi was in the house when it was hit, said intelligence officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

A vehicle used by al-Libi was destroyed during the strike, said one of the officials. Agents intercepted a militant phone call indicating an Arab was killed in the attack, but it is unclear if they were talking about al-Libi, who was born in Libya, said the official.

A local Taliban chief said al-Libi's guard and driver were killed in the strike, but the al-Qaida commander was not there. Al-Libi did survive a previous strike, said the Taliban chief, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by the Pakistani army.

The White House maintains a list of terrorist targets to be killed or captured, compiled by the military and the CIA and ultimately approved by the president.

The U.S. has stepped up drone strikes in Pakistan recently, carrying out seven in less than two weeks. The flurry follows a relative lull driven by tensions between Washington and Islamabad over American airstrikes last year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Pakistan seized the opportunity to renegotiate its relationship with the U.S. and demanded Washington stop drone strikes in the country - a demand the U.S. has ignored. The attacks are unpopular in Pakistan because many people believe they mostly kill civilians, an allegation disputed by the U.S.

Pakistan called Deputy U.S. Ambassador Richard Hoagland to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday to protest the drone strikes.

"He was informed that the drone strikes were unlawful, against international law and a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty," said a statement sent by the Foreign Ministry to reporters.

Members of the Pakistani government and military have supported the strikes in the past, but that cooperation has come under strain as the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice program had set a $1 million reward for information leading to al-Libi, who had filmed numerous propaganda videos urging attacks on U.S. targets after he escaped a prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2005.

Al-Libi took the second-in-command spot when Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri took charge of al-Qaida after bin Laden's death. As al-Qaida's de facto general manager, al-Libi is responsible for running the group's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal areas and manages outreach to al-Qaida's regional affiliates.

"This is one of the more prominent names" among the targets of drone strikes in Pakistan, added former CIA officer Paul Pillar.

He said al-Libi's death would help bolster the CIA's push to continue the drone program despite the continued political resistance from Pakistan and collateral damage.

Al-Libi's death would be "another reason not to accept Pakistan's demand for an end to drone wars," added Brookings Institute's Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and adviser to the White House on Afghanistan and Pakistan policy.