Islamabad, Jan. 15 : Pakistan has claimed that it has come down hard on the terrorist outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and has put its top leaders Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi behind bars, after admitting that the outfit was actually running terror camps behind the garb of a religious charity.

Interestingly, the clampdown against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa came after the Saudi intelligence chief's visit to Pakistan earlier this week.

It also claims to have shut down five camps of the JuD.

slamabad, Jan. 15 : The sacked Pakistani National Security Adviser (NSA) Mehmood Ali Durrani, has said that the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had acted in haste while ordering him to resign

Durrani said that he maintained a good relationship with Gilani, and blamed a `lobby' behind his dismissal.

"I had maintained good relations with the Prime Minister, but a specific lobby was involved in my dismissal," The Daily Times quoted Durrani, as saying.

Islamabad, Jan 14 : Pakistani politicians have demanded an investigation into fast bowler Mohammad Asif's detention in the United Arab Emirates last year for possessing a small amount of opium.

Asif was caught at Dubai Airport on June 1, 2007, after being caught with 0.24 grams of opium on his way back to Pakistan after playing in the Indian Premier League. He was detained for 19 days before being deported.

Islamabad, Jan. 14 : A day after the US State Department imposed sanctions on disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist, A. Q. Khan, he has categorically denied ever having met al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

He said that the media reports about his contact were baseless, and a part of propaganda of the `western media'.

"I had no direct or indirect contact with Osama Bin Laden and suggestions to that effect were baseless propaganda by the western media," the Daily Times quoted Khan, as saying.

Islamabad, Jan 14 : Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that parliament is authorised to decide on the powers of the President and the Prime Minister, and added that he would accept whatever decision is made regarding amendments to the Constitution.

"I believe in the sovereignty of parliament and the strengthening of the democratic institutions," he told a four-member delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) delegation in a meeting at the Presidency.

Islamabad  - Eighteen people were killed when a passenger van plunged into a deep ravine in north-west Pakistan, media reports said Wednesday.

The bus carrying 18 passengers and the driver fell 100 metres off the mountain road in the Dankoo area in Buner district of North West Frontier Province on Tuesday night.

According to the Urdu-language Aaj TV news, the only survivor was an eight-year-old boy who suffered minor injuries.

Bad weather was the main cause of the accident, the report quoted police as saying.