The Taliban have positioned themselves less than 100km from the Pakistani capital. One of our Observers in the country tells us that she doesn't see the militant group taking power. She explains however that the US, which has today expressed alarm over the advancing Taliban, is partly responsible for the mounting success of Islamic extremism in the country. Read more...

In a bid to avoid his impeachment by parliament, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation in a televised speech. While hailing the departure of the “dictator”, one of our Observers in the country explains why the outgoing leader will be replaced by “crooks”. Read more…

Thousands of lawyers and activists are travelling over 600 miles from Karachi to Islamabad to demand the return of judges ousted from the Supreme Court by President Musharraf. The trip was planned to echo Ghandi's "long marches" across the country. Except that this one's going by car... Read more.

Photo of a voting slip posted online by a blogger.

The Pakistani blogosphere is bursting with accounts of electoral fraud today as increasing numbers of bloggers tell tales of trickery and blind-eye attitudes in the general elections. Particularly low participation numbers make good conditions for usurpation and in the election both President Musharraf’s party and the opposition may have taken advantage of them. The accounts have yet to be confirmed by international observers. Read more…

Report by Team Observers

President Pervez Musharraf announced on Thursday that the legislative elections will take place before 15 February. But the state of emergency stays in place and access to non-state television channels is still blocked. However, an online protest movement is gaining speed as increasing numbers of local internet users get involved. The Observers Team has compiled some of the material produced by these citizen journalists.

By Team Observers

Since the declaration of a state of emergency on 03 November, all the privately-owned news channels – Geo, Dawn and Ary – have been blocked by the Pakistani cable operators. But internet users have got together to circulate these prohibited programmes online.