ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s reluctance to mount another major offensive against the Taliban may be due to its fear of equally deadly reprisals by the militants, which erode the government’s credibility among its people, analysts say.

Last year, Pakistan launched two major offensives against militants linked to al Qaeda and Taliban in the northwest bordering Afghanistan and the United States has been pushing it to mount another one in their last bastion, North Waziristan.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The election of a new leader of Pakistan’s lawyer community may help ease growing tension between the government and the judiciary, analysts say, while at the same time strengthening Pakistan’s democracy.

Renowned human rights activist Asma Jahangir Wednesday was elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, defeating rivals seen as allies of the dominating judiciary against the government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The Taliban are negotiating a peace deal with a Pakistani tribe in the northwest, tribal elders said on Thursday, that could give militants access to remote strategic areas on the Afghan border.

The talk of a deal between members of the Haqqani network — one of the most dangerous Taliban factions — and the Turi tribe in the Kurram region is likely to raise concerns in the United States which has been demanding Pakistan get tough with the militants fighting Western forces across the border.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan is being kept out of efforts by the Afghan government and the United States to end nearly a decade of war with the Taliban, which could be a sign of Washington’s mistrust of Islamabad’s intentions.

NATO and Afghan officials have confirmed preliminary contacts between President Hamid Karzai’s government and the Taliban, whose leadership is based in Pakistan’s northwestern frontier province and the Baluchistan capital of Quetta.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani police have arrested seven suspected militants accused of plotting to kill Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and several senior government figures.

The suspects arrested on Wednesday after a shootout near the city of Bahawalpur in the central province of Punjab are members of the Sunni Muslim militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is allegedly allied to al Qaeda.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday warned the government against firing assertive judges amid fears of a repeat of a crisis that helped bring down former military President Pervez Musharraf.

Television channels on Thursday said the government of President Asif Ali Zardari was planning to dismiss judges hearing an appeal against overturning a law that gave amnesty to him, several of his key aides and politicians of corruption charges.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan will immediately reopen a vital supply route for NATO forces in Afghanistan 10 days after it was shut following a cross-border air strike by NATO forces, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

The United States apologized to Pakistan on Wednesday for the September 30 raid that killed two Pakistani soldiers, raising hopes that Pakistan would reopen the Torkham border crossing in the northwest for transporting supplies for NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani ordered on Friday an investigation into a video posted on the Internet showing men in Pakistani military fatigues shooting at a group of what the military said were civilians.

The video raised fresh questions about alleged extra-judicial killings by the army, while Pakistan faces mounting U.S. pressure to crack down harder on militants launching attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan from Pakistani sanctuaries.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Gunmen in Pakistan set fire to up to 40 supply trucks for NATO troops in two raids on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a series of assaults on the logistical backbone of the war in Afghanistan.

The attacks were launched on the same day the United States apologized to Pakistan for a NATO cross-border incursion in which U.S. helicopters killed two Pakistani soldiers.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Globe-trotting jihadis who need a place to train, network or plot attacks on the West are finding a warm welcome among militant groups in northwestern Pakistan.

Reports of eight German militants killed in a suspected U.S. drone attack in Pakistan deepened concerns over an alleged plot against European targets reported to have originated with a group of individuals, some of them believed to be European citizens, in mountainous northern Pakistan.