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With the flurry of excitement over the expected return of Shahbaz Sharif, elected head of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group), having faded away, the party has decided to enter into an electoral agreement with its former arch rival, the Pakistan People's Party-Parliamentarian (PPP-P).

As the major parties complete the task of allocating party tickets, both the Pakistan People's Party, Parliamentarian (PPPP), and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group), seem to have opted for the "tried and trusted".

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, the veteran leader of the Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP), has announced that he  will not be contesting any election again.

The blaze of publicity given to the 'vani' case in Mianwali, where eight girls were "given away" to men from a rival family as part of a deal, has led to other such cases coming into the open.

A team of shocked Christian representatives, social activists and lawyers left Lahore yesterday for the hill resort of Murree in the northern Punjab to visit the school where an attack by gunmen left six people dead.

While both the Commonwealth and the European Union are planning to send teams to monitor elections in Pakistan in October, security issues are said to be a major concern for both groups.

As anticipated, the decision by veteran Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, to make an attempt to contest for the leadership of the party in the Punjab, was a first step towards taking on the Benazir Bhutto-led party.

The election of Shahbaz Sharif to the leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group), coupled with rumours that with or without government consent, he will soon return to the country, has had a huge impact on the political scenario in the country.

Religious organisations waging a battle against the Madrassah Regulation Ordinance 2002, which aimed to streamline the functioning of seminaries seem to have scored a major victory.

For the first time since the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan late last year, rumours have been heard within several religious parties and militant groups that Al Qaida chief, Osama bin Laden, could indeed have died during the conflict or soon afterwards.

With the October, 2002, elections having already produced some rather unlikely alliances, a new one between the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) seems to be on the anvil.

The attack on a small church near the northern Punjab town of Taxila has resulted in the Punjab police shifting its focus from Lahore and the southern belt of the province to the north.