Afghan President Hamid Karzai registered to run for re-election on Monday, but was criticised for naming a former guerrilla chief accused of rights abuses as his senior running mate.
As the Aug. 20 election draws closer, Karzai appears to be approaching an all but unassailable position, with the opposition struggling to name a contender with a broad enough support base to win.
“I have taken this decision for the welfare and interest of the people of Afghanistan,” Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since 2001, said of his decision to seek a second …

The US and its European allies are ­preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned.
The creation of a new chief executive or prime ministerial role is aimed at bypassing Karzai. In a further dilution of his power, it is proposed that money be diverted from the Kabul government to the provinces. Many US and European officials have become disillusioned with the extent of the corruption and incompetence in the Karzai government, …

Pakistan sealed off city exits to activists trying to march on the capital and stopped a key lawyer from boarding a flight Saturday, widening a crackdown on protests that has sparked turmoil.
President Asif Ali Zardari, whose popularity ratings are at rock bottom, is locked in a standoff with the main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif over demands that he reinstate judges sacked by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Opposition activists and lawyers have called on hundreds of thousands of protesters to march on the capital Islamabad by Monday, but the authorities …

Hamid Karzai is the current President of Afghanistan, since December 7, 2004. He became a prominent political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif warned in an interview Friday that political chaos could embolden Islamist militants threatening nuclear-armed Pakistan, as his supporters battled police following a court ruling barring him from elected office.
Pakistan’s biggest political crisis in over a year began Wednesday when the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that banned Sharif from contesting elections because of a past criminal conviction.
The court also disqualified Sharif’s brother from continuing as head of the government in Punjab province, Pakistan’s largest, prompting President Asif Ali Zardari to oust the regional government.

Pakistan Muslim League leader Nawaz Sharif says his political party will help liberate Pakistan with the support of the Pakistani people.
The head of the PML-N party said the Pakistani people are supporting his group, which is planning a democratic revolution in Pakistan, the Paktribune said Friday.
Sharif also said during a meeting of his party’s provincial working council this week that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari allegedly pressured provincial assembly members to alter their party loyalties.

NEW DELHI (UCAN) — The recent election for seats in the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly has produced hoped-for results, say Church leaders in India’s northernmost state.
The outcome is “what we had hoped for,” Bishop Peter Celestine of Jammu-Srinagar told UCA News on Dec. 29, a day after the results were announced. Bishop Celestine is based in Jammu, the state’s winter capital, 585 kilometers north of New Delhi. Srinagar, the summer capital, is 295 kilometers further north. The diocese covers the state.

Sheikh Hasina Wazed was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001…

No clear winner emerged in elections in India’s troubled Jammu and Kashmir region, according to results released Sunday, but a new coalition led by the regional National Conference party was likely to assume power in the assembly.
The election was held in the shadow of a tense standoff between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed countries that have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
No single party gained enough seats to form a government on its own, but the National Conference is expected to ally with the Congress party. The former, which …

Bangladeshi politicians have launched a final, hectic day of campaigning ahead of the first elections in seven years.
Monday’s parliamentary polls will end two years of rule by an army-backed regime which stepped in after months of political violence brought the country to a standstill.
The two women who have dominated the political scene for the past two decades, Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League, and her bitter rival Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), will both deliver televised addresses to the nation on Saturday.