Word: islamabad
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Moments after the decision was announced, angry mobs from the Sharifs' Punjabi power base took to the streets in protest. In Islamabad (a federal territory located within the boundaries of Punjab), young men waving the PML-N's green flags and chanting anti-Zardari slogans seized control of two of the capital's main thoroughfares. Panicked shopkeepers in the bustling Aabpara market swiftly pulled down their shutters and fled the area. The youths torched car tires and attacked cars bearing government license plates. Parts of Lahore, the second largest city and capital of Punjab, were brought to a standstill...
...prohibition on female education will be lifted. But many of the teachers who were threatened have fled the area and are too fearful to return anytime soon. "The Taliban have threatened us not to come back," says Zunaiba Hayat, a 35-year-old middle-school teacher who moved to Islamabad after her school was ransacked by the militants...
...fate of the Swat deal clear in Islamabad, where it has yet to be ratified by President Asif Ali Zardari, whose government is under pressure from Western allies to take a tougher line against the Taliban. Many in his own party privately express misgivings. "What will stop them from going further?" says one member of parliament who asked not to be named. "I don't want my wife or daughter to wear a burqa. What if they don't lay down their weapons? They could be in Peshawar next, or even Islamabad...
...nations in recognizing the communist People's Republic of China. In 1962, war broke out between China and India over the disputed Himalayan border region, further aligning China and Pakistan in the name of a common enmity toward India. Since then, Beijing has often offered its support to Islamabad in the way of economic assistance, but also with no-strings-attached military aid and support to Pakistan's nuclear program. (See pictures of Pakistan's vulnerable Northwest passage...
Instead of increasing assistance to its old ally, Beijing has apparently been keeping a distance from Islamabad. During Zardari's visit in October, the Chinese snubbed the Pakistani President's request for a full-blown economic bailout. While Beijing did grant Islamabad a soft loan last year worth $500 million, it was nowhere near the estimated $14 billion experts say is needed to get Pakistan back on its feet. "The cooperation we saw during the Musharraf era just isn't there anymore," says Sayem Ali, an economist with Standard Chartered Bank in Karachi. "China would rather develop better relations with...