Washington, Sep 8 : Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Hussain Haqqani, has contacted American state department and pentagon officials to seek the repatriation of five Pakistani prisoners kept in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

Haqqani said that the Pakistani prisoners should be released and handed over to the authorities so that they could be prosecuted in Pakistan if there were any charges against them.

The Daily Times reported that Ume Amaar Al Balochi, Majid Khan, Abdul Rabbani, Muhammad Ahmed, Ghulam Rabbani and Saifullah are the Pakistani detained at Guantanamo.

Islamabad, Sep 8: Pakistan’s newly elected Presidents Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif will meet today in Islamabad after 32 days to exchange greetings.

Sharif will go to Islamabad to congratulate President elect Asif Ali Zardari which would be the first meeting between two leaders since August 7, when they had signed an agreement for restoring judges, The News reported.

Zardari has already invited Sharif to attend his oath-taking ceremony.

Washington, Sep 8 : Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden has drawn up a long-term plan for the US to help Pakistan economically, in a bid to strengthen the state against Islamist extremism.

But the problem is that Pakistan may not be able to wait that long for the aid, The News reported.

America should give emergency aid to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the Pakistani military offensives in Bajaur in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Swat in the North West Frontier Province.

Islamabad, Sep 8: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will attend the oath-taking ceremony of Pakistan’s president-elect Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday.

“The Pakistani president invited him to take part in the oath-taking ceremony to be held in Islamabad soon”, and Karzai has accepted the invitation, Dawn reported.

According to a statement issued by Karzai’s office, the Afghan President telephoned Zardari to congratulate him on winning the September 6 presidential election.

Islamabad - Ijaz Afridi, a school teacher, is indifferent to the election of Asif Ali Zardari as Pakistan's new president. He is too busy with receiving condolences from visitors for his cousin, who was butchered by a suicide bomber together with 35 other people on Saturday, as lawmakers were voting for the new head of the state.

A single attacker in his twenties blew up his explosive-laden car after failing to cross a security checkpoint in a busy market just outside Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Saturday.

New Delhi - India had the political will to work with the newly-elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to the Pakistani leader on Sunday.

"In your new office, you will find a friend in India," Singh said in his message, adding that the government and people of India wished to build close ties of friendship and partnership between the two countries.

The nuclear-capable South Asian neighbours have had troubled relations since independence from British rule in 1947 and have fought three wars. They are currently engaged in a dialogue to resolve differences including that over the disputed Kashmir region.