MORE FROM Pakistan

Despite a bloody campaign marred by Taleban attacks, Pakistan was holding historic elections Saturday pitting a former cricket star against a two-time prime minister once exiled by the army and an incumbent blamed for power blackouts and inflation.

The government of Pakistan ordered the New York Times’ bureau chief in Islamabad to leave the country on the eve of national elections, the newspaper said on Friday.

A string of militant attacks cast a long shadow over Pakistan’s general election on Saturday, but millions still turned out to vote in a landmark test of the troubled country’s democracy.

ISLAMABAD -Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is believed to be in Dubai due to security threats, may not be able to cast his vote on May 11.

ISLAMABAD - Taleban militants plan to carry out suicide bombings during Saturday’s election in a bid to undermine the poll, according to a letter from the leader of the militant group.

ISLAMABAD - President Asif Ali Zardari issued an ordinance on Thursday granting the right to vote to overseas Pakistanis.

ISLAMABAD - Armed men kidnapped Ali Haider Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and gunned down his guard in Multan on Thursday.

KARACHI -The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) which has thousands of members on Thursday threatened to boycott election duties after one of its member died under pressure from a Returning Officer.

KARACHI — Even among the colourful cast of mullahs, labourers and idealists standing in Pakistan’s elections this Saturday, Bindia Rana stands out.