News stories by Ashfaq Yusufzai, page 8

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 15 (IPS) - For many years they could not sing, dance or play their favourite instruments. The performing artists of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northern Pakistan lost their voice as the Taliban carried out terror attacks and banned music, calling it un-Islamic. But after tentative advances in recent months, the Pakistani province is alive with the sound of music once again.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 03 (IPS) - The Taliban are proving to be a huge stumbling block for Pakistan as the South Asian nation - one of only three remaining polio endemic countries in the world – tries to fight the crippling disease.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dic 31 (IPS) - A mock poll held in Peshawar earlier this week could clean up the face of elections in Pakistan. The Pakistan Tehreek Insaf Party led by former cricketer Imran Khan tested biometric polling methods to eliminate election fraud.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dic 30 (IPS) - Ahmed Nawaz, a 55-year-old farmer in northwestern Pakistan's Swat valley, rues the day the Taliban arrived in his beautiful land, known for its rolling mountains, lush fields and blossoming orchards. "The earth became barren," he says.

PESHAWAR, Dic 27 (IPS) - Farhat Bibi, 43, was left to fend for her three young sons after her husband was killed in a bomb attack in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) three years ago. A few days later, she landed at a camp for people displaced by violence. "The camp proved to be a blessing in disguise," she says.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dic 16 (IPS) - Doctors in the Pakistani frontier provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are running scared after nearly 45 consultants were kidnapped for ransom this year. Police suspect that gangs enjoying the Taliban's patronage are behind the abductions that are just a symptom of the many challenges the country faces as it battles terrorism, ethnic conflicts and sectarian divisions.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dic 09 (IPS) - More than 300 U.S. drone attacks have killed 2,160 militants and 67 civilians in Pakistan since 2008, according to Pakistani defence ministry data. But people living in the affected areas are now questioning these figures, asking why they never get to know the names of the militants or see the bodies.

PESHAWAR, Nov 29 (IPS) - A blockade of NATO supplies to Afghanistan by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's party has ended up hitting Pakistan's legal trade with its neighbour, say local traders and truckers.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 22 (IPS) - Upping the ante against U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, celebrated cricketer-turned-political leader Imran Khan has threatened to block NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where his party leads a coalition government.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 19 (IPS) - Mustafa Khan, who sells cigarettes by the roadside in a Pakistani village, has a simple reason for sending two of his sons to a madrassa, an Islamic seminary, and not to a proper school. "We cannot afford it," he says.