Islamabad, Feb. 18 : The Pakistan Government has refuted claims of former President General Pervez Musharraf that the authorities are trying to weaken the Army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Sherry Rehman categorically denied the charge by saying: "The Pakistan Army and ISI are important and strong institutions that have always co-operated with the government."

Islamabad, Feb. 18 : A visibly worried Britain has said that the implementation of `sharia law' in the Swat Valley and in parts of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) would actually result in an increase in militancy in the region.

A statement issued by the British High Commission here said that the pact signed between the Pakistan Government and the Taliban could create more problems in the region.

Islamabad  - At least eight people, including two terrorists, were killed and more than a dozen injured as a car bomb exploded in Pakistan's militancy-hit North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Tuesday, a security official said.

"Six people we killed and 16 people were injured when a bomb fixed with a car parked at Bazid Khel locality of Peshawar, the provincial capital of NWFP, went off," said an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Islamabad, Feb. 17 : The United Nations has urged the kidnappers of John Solecki, the head of the UNHCR in Quetta, to make direct contact, and called for his immediate release.

Solecki was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 2 while travelling to work. His driver was killed.

The Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), which claims to be holding Solecki, on Monday extended a 72-hour deadline for the government to meet demands for his release.

Islamabad, Feb. 17 : Despite the Pakistan Government's insistence that the new legal system in the Swat Valley is consistent with existing civil law, there are some people in the country who see the accord as representing the ominous power of the militants, and fear that it could spread into the heartland of Pakistan, including the country's most populous and wealthiest province, Punjab.

"The hardest task for the government will be to protect the Punjab against inroads by militants," the Dawn quotes I. A. Rehman, a member of the Human Rights Commission, as saying in an article for the newspaper.

Islamabad, Feb 17 : Pakistan Government's decision to impose Sharia in areas of Swat Valley in order to strike a peace deal with militants is a wrong precedent and will not be able to calm the conflict, according to observers.

Islamabad's faltering military campaign in Swat has been put on hold, and the militants have agreed to a tentative ceasefire. The government decision has set a worrying precedent - one that will surely displease some US officials who want Pakistan to take a harder line against militants, Time magazine reported.