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Pakistan's Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has said that the PPP-led Government was not giving any extension to Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, as he has not asked for the extension of his tenure. General Kayani (55) is the 14th chief of the Pakistan Army. He was promoted as a full General in October 2007, and made the Vice Chief of Army Staff. He took over as the new Army Chief after Pervez Musharraf's retirement on November 28,2007. Mukhtar also said that the government would not write a letter to the Swiss authorities for the reopening of cases against its own President. He said there was no confrontation between the government and the judiciary, adding that the government was not facing any serious problem from the judiciary. He said the president could only be removed through impeachment. Answering a question about the NRO, the minister said he did not have enough knowledge regarding any legal complications. Mukhtar stressed the need for initiating the Pak-India composite dialogue to resolve any lingering issues. Sources in the Union Home Ministry on Monday feared that the casualties of the IED blast in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada is likely to go high as the rescue and relief operations have been hampered due to bad light. Security forces have launched a major rescue operation. On Monday evening in one of the worst attack on civilians the Maoists blew up a private bus killing over 30 people. The bus was on its way from Dantewada to Sukma when the incident took place near Chingawaram, over nine kilometers from Sukma. The bus-CG17 SS 9295 was carrying 20 special police officers (SPO) and over 30 civilians.The SPOs were on their way to participate in a special recruitment drive. The latest blast incident has taken place a day after the Maoists called for a 48 hour shutdown in five states-Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. The sources said the attack might have been a pre -planned one. Reportedly, the Maoists also fired on the bus after the blast to ensure that nobody stays alive.

Pak Govt. rules out extending General Kayani's tenure