President Asif Ali Zardari

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will see most of his powers stripped and his office turned into a figurehead role under sweeping constitutional changes introduced Friday and expected to be passed by parliament next week. Support is virtually unanimous for a constitutional amendment that returns the bulk of the powers held by the president to the prime minister. Zardari himself backed the change, giving in to political pressure from all sides to relinquish powers that had been acquired by military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

CHICAGO - As thousands of protesters marched in the streets, President Obama welcomed more than 60 world leaders to his heavily guarded hometown for a NATO summit that will start the clock for America and its allies to begin pulling combat troops from Afghanistan. The two-day summit, the largest in the 63-year history of the military alliance, came as White House officials made it clear they were furious overPakistan's continued refusal to reopen ground routes used to move fuel and other war supplies into Afghanistan, a six-month standoff that the White House had hoped to resolve before Obama arrived in Chicago.

  A Pakistani American businessman told a judicial panel Wednesday that Pakistani officials enlisted him last year to deliver a memo urging Washington to help rein in the country's powerful military, saying the idea was pushed by the nation's then-ambassador to the U.S. and endorsed by President Asif Ali Zardari. Mansoor Ijaz testified that during a phone call in the days after the May 2 killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a U.S. commando raid, a noticeably agitated Husain Haqqani, the ambassador at the time, said Zardari's government was "under enormous pressure" fromPakistan's military.

JACOBABAD, Pakistan — Rachna Kumari, 16, was shopping for dresses in this city's dust-choked bazaar when it happened. The man who her family says abducted her was not a street thug. He was a police officer. Nor was he a stranger. Rachna's family knew and trusted him. He guarded the Hindu temple run by her father, an important duty in a society where Hindus are often terrorized by Muslim extremists, and he had helped Rachna cram for her ninth-grade final exams. After she disappeared from the market, he did not demand a ransom.

Dealing a heavy blow to Pakistan's embattled government, the Supreme Court on Monday initiated contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for refusing to revive a long-standing corruption case against the nation's president. Gilani, a top ally of President Asif Ali Zardari in the ruling Pakistan People's Party, must appear before the court Thursday, when the justices will listen to his explanation for not going ahead with the case. If the court moves forward with the contempt proceedings and Gilani is convicted, he could be disqualified from office and forced to step down.

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down an amnesty that had shielded President Asif Ali Zardari from graft charges, a decision that could imperil the political future of a leader regarded by the U.S. as a key ally in the war on terrorism. Though not unexpected, the ruling deals Pakistan's 54-year-old president a serious blow at a time when his popularity with Pakistanis continues to sink and calls for his resignation mount. The decision also is likely to draw concern in Washington, where Zardari is seen as a reliable partner in the fight against Islamic extremists.

In Islamabad, it's not only "the economy, stupid," it's the Islamic insurgency. Those are the most urgent threats to Pakistan, and yet it was the country's weak democratic institutions and political rivalries that nearly provoked sweeping civil unrest this week. Though partly responsible for the crisis, President Asif Ali Zardari nonetheless pulled the nation back from the brink of violence, inadvertently offering glimmers of hope in the process.

JACOBABAD, Pakistan — Rachna Kumari, 16, was shopping for dresses in this city's dust-choked bazaar when it happened. The man who her family says abducted her was not a street thug. He was a police officer. Nor was he a stranger. Rachna's family knew and trusted him. He guarded the Hindu temple run by her father, an important duty in a society where Hindus are often terrorized by Muslim extremists, and he had helped Rachna cram for her ninth-grade final exams. After she disappeared from the market, he did not demand a ransom.

A suspected U.S. missile strike on a Taliban commander's home in Pakistan killed six people, Pakistani officials said, in a possible indication that the U.S. was continuing cross-border raids despite protests from the new government. The attack in North Waziristan was the first since President Asif Ali Zardari warned that Pakistani territory cannot "be violated by our friends." U.S. forces recently ramped up operations against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.

Re "Is Pakistan's new president up to the job?" Sept. 29 This article is an unfortunate, biased attack on President Asif Ali Zardari. Zardari held the Pakistani nation together after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, on Dec. 27, 2007. He pacified people's rage and led the Pakistan People's Party into elections. After peacefully causing the end of Gen. Pervez Musharraf's dictatorship with the help of a broad-based coalition, Zardari won an overwhelming two-thirds victory as president, completing a restoration of democracy that few believed possible.

NEW DELHI - Pakistan's president arrived in India on Sunday, the first official visit one leader of the wary neighbors has paid to the other nation in seven years. No breakthroughs were announced, but both sides hailed the meeting as a sign of easing tensions along one of the world's most dangerous borders. Spinmeisters on both sides worked overtime to lower public expectations of the "private" trip that saw Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discuss the 2008 terrorist attack on the Indian city of Mumbai, modest if expanding trade links, the disputed territory of Kashmir and efforts to bring various militants to justice.

  A Pakistani American businessman told a judicial panel Wednesday that Pakistani officials enlisted him last year to deliver a memo urging Washington to help rein in the country's powerful military, saying the idea was pushed by the nation's then-ambassador to the U.S. and endorsed by President Asif Ali Zardari. Mansoor Ijaz testified that during a phone call in the days after the May 2 killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a U.S. commando raid, a noticeably agitated Husain Haqqani, the ambassador at the time, said Zardari's government was "under enormous pressure" fromPakistan's military.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani appeared Thursday before a Supreme Court panel to defend himself in contempt-of-court proceedings, staving off an immediate ruling in a high-stakes case that could lead to his ouster and jeopardize his party's hold on government. The high court initiated contempt proceedings against Gilani this week, contending that he had deliberately ignored its frequent demands to pursue long-standing corruption allegations against his boss, President Asif Ali Zardari.

Dealing a heavy blow to Pakistan's embattled government, the Supreme Court on Monday initiated contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for refusing to revive a long-standing corruption case against the nation's president. Gilani, a top ally of President Asif Ali Zardari in the ruling Pakistan People's Party, must appear before the court Thursday, when the justices will listen to his explanation for not going ahead with the case. If the court moves forward with the contempt proceedings and Gilani is convicted, he could be disqualified from office and forced to step down.

In its standoff with President Asif Ali Zardari's administration, Pakistan's powerful military is relying on an institution that experts say is equally antagonistic toward the civilian government: the country's high court. The Pakistani capital has been awash with rumors that the army, which is fed up with a civilian government defined by corruption and ineffectiveness, is planning a coup. But as the rift between civilian leaders and the security establishment widens, it's becoming clear that a military takeover isn't what the generals envision.

Ratcheting up pressure on Pakistan's embattled civilian government, the nation's Supreme Court on Tuesday threatened to dismiss Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from office if he does not revive corruption proceedings against President Asif Ali Zardari. Gilani and Zardari, who heads the ruling Pakistan People's Party, are struggling to survive withering attacks from the country's military and judiciary, both powerful institutions that harbor long-standing animosity for the two civilian leaders.

Benazir Bhutto had a life that makes fiction pale by comparison. When writer Tariq Ali says, characterizing the tale of her charismatic but cursed family, "the whole story has strong elements of a Greek tragedy," he is not telling the half of it. As "Bhutto," the thorough and involving documentary on her life conveys, Benazir was a formidable personality all by herself. The first woman to head a Muslim state, twice Pakistan's prime minister, assassinated Dec. 27, 2007, when she returned from exile to try for a third term, Benazir was rarely less than remarkable.

It is a truism that you don't get to pick your enemies, but in global politics it is often true that you don't get to pick your friends either. That's the situation President Obama finds himself in today and Thursday as he meets in Washington with the weak and not terribly popular presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan. His challenge is to build confidence and forge a common counter- insurgency strategy with these U.S. allies who do not trust each other or, necessarily, Obama.

  In an effort to mend badly frayed relations with Pakistan, the CIA has suspended drone missile strikes on gatherings of low-ranking militants believed to be involved in cross-border attacks on U.S. troops or facilities in Afghanistan, current and former U.S. officials say. The undeclared halt in CIA attacks, now in its sixth week, is aimed at reversing a sharp erosion of trust after a series of deadly incidents, including the mistaken attack...

Pakistan and the United States have been here before: a crisis followed by saber rattling, recriminations — and moves behind the scenes to patch things up. This time feels different. The rage coursing through Pakistani society over the Nov. 26 airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers suggests there may be permanent damage to a relationship already scarred this year by the killing of two Pakistani men by a CIA contractor, and by the U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden.