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Senior Pak Army General, six others killed in suicide blast

A senior General who headed the Pakistan Army's medical services and six other persons were killed and 29 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Rawalpindi.

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ISLAMABAD: A senior General who headed the Pakistan Army's medical services and six other persons were killed and 29 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near his vehicle in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Monday, the second such attack on military medical staff this month.
    
The attacker detonated his explosives near the staff car of Lt Gen Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, Director General of Medical Services, on Mall Road, a busy commercial area located a short distance from the army's General Headquarters, at around 3 pm.
    
Baig and his driver and guard were among those killed in the blast, Interior Ministry officials told Dawn News channel.
    
Body parts lay strewn all over the site of the blast, which was immediately cordoned off by army personnel. At least 10 vehicles and several shops were damaged by the powerful explosion, which was heard across the cantonment area in Rawalpindi.
    
It was not immediately clear whether the suicide bomber was on foot or in a car. Some reports said the bomber rammed a vehicle into the general's staff car.
    
The suicide attack shattered the calm that followed last week's crucial parliamentary polls which were swept by the opposition Pakistan People's Party and the PML-N.
    
Security agencies immediately sounded an alert in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, where several top political leaders, including PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, are holding consultations on the formation of a new government following the polls.
   
Sharif wanted the country's depsoed judiciary to rule on the legality of Musharraf's position before any parliament move to impeach him.
  
"Before parliament impeaches him we want this issue resolved by the judiciary... it should not reach that stage," Sharif said.
   
Musharraf sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and dozens of other judges on November 3, days before the Supreme Court was due to rule on his re-election.
    
Sharif, whose PML-N  last week announced it would form a coalition with PPP, said the newly elected
parliamentarians of the victorious parties would meet here on Wednesday to demand the immediate transfer of power by Musharraf, who has said he is ready to work with the new government.
    
"We are meeting so that Musharraf can realise the real situation," he said.
     
Also endorsing a negotiated exit for Musharraf was Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison who advised the incoming government not to be "heavy-handed or ham-handed".
     
Musharraf, who has been on a backfoot following the defeat of the parties backed by him in Feb 18 polls, yesterday denied reports that he was planning an "exit strategy".
      
Meanwhile, behind the scene negotiations over government formation continued with the PML(N) apparently linking its cooperation with the PPP to lifting of a ban on prime minisers seeking a  third prime ministerial term.
     
Musharraf had passed a law in 2002 to bar Sharif and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, both two-time prime ministers, from occupying the top post again.
      
Before cooperating with the PPP, the PML-N will seek a guarantee that after coming to power, the PPP-led government will withdraw the amendment to the constitution that bars a third prime ministerial term, sources told the Daily Times.

 

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