Pakistan approved a bill to provide for a higher punishment for sexual harassment of women.

The United Nations is to pull its non-essential foreign staff out of Afghanistan after a deadly Taliban attack on a guesthouse for UN workers that killed 5 UN workers. The UN has about 5,600 staff in Afghanistan, about 80 percent of whom are Afghans, and the relocations will affect around 12 percent of total deployment.
United Nations has total of 1100 foreigners in Afghanistan and about 600 expatriate staff will be temporarily relocated either within Afghanistan or abroad.
UN spokesman Dan McNorton said:
Around 600 non-Afghan staff will be temporarily relocated. The …

The European Union’s support for Pakistan’s counter-terrorism strategy should be widely welcomed. Undoubtedly, Pakistan has convinced foreign partners that Pakistan is serious about fighting the militants who threaten the stability and integrity of the country because of the ongoing military operation in south Waziristan.
We are mistaken if we believe that we will have a free hand in spending the 300 million euros a year aid that the European Union is giving us. It is time that our politicians realized that aid offered by the international community always comes with ‘strings’ …

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) has  called off a runoff scheduled for November 7, 2009 after Dr. Abdullah Abdullah the only challenger withdrew from run-off. Consequently IEC has declared  Hamid Karzai elected as president of Afghanistan.
The Independent Election Commission’s chief Azizullah Ludin told a news conference:
The Independent Election Commission declares the esteemed Hamid Karzai as the president … because he was the winner of the first round and the only candidate in the second round.
Dr. Abdullah quit the election process because of his doubts over the legitimacy of the election. …

Abdullah Abdullah who indicated his withdrawal from the Afghan Presidentail run-off elections has annouced that he will be no longer running for elections on November 7, 2009. Mr. Karzai’s only challenger in the Afghan run-off has accused the government not meeting the demands for a fair election free from frauds.
Dr. Abdullah told the reporters:
As far as I’m concerned, the decision I have reached is not to participate. I have strong, strong reservations about the credibility of the process.
Karzai who had been favorite to win the run-off after getting more votes …

World Bank has expressed its dissatisfaction over the pace of progress on revenue reforms in Pakistan, attributing it to resistance from ‘vested interest’ and ‘lack of political will.’
According to a report of the World Bank Review Mission submitted to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) the World Bank has advised the government of Pakistan to bypass the parliament and implement taxation reforms through a presidential ordinance. The report suggests that going to the parliament could result in ‘undesired consequences’.
The report said:
The government of Pakistan has some options to follow …