ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military says it has successfully test-fired a short-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

A military statement says the Hatf III Ghaznavi missile with a range of 290 kilometers was launched on Tuesday from an undisclosed location.

It says the test was conducted during a field training exercise and that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen. Rashad Mahmood and other officers were present.

Afterward, Mahmood congratulated scientists and engineers involved for the successful launch.

Pakistan, which became a nuclear power in 1998, routinely test-fires what it claims are indigenously developed missiles.

The international community closely watches its weapons program as Pakistan has fought three wars with its nuclear-armed archenemy and neighbor India after gaining independence since 1947.

Court stays banned leader’s election

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday halted the election to the national parliament of the leader of a banned sectarian group, officials said. An election tribunal earlier this month declared Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi, head of a group called Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), the elected member for the town of Jhang in Punjab province.

Ludhianvi, whose organization is listed as a terrorist outfit by the Pakistani government, came second in the seat in the May 2013 general election to Shaikh Mohammad Akram of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party.

But he took the matter to an election tribunal and successfully challenged Akram over allegations of vote-rigging and defaulting on a loan.

On Tuesday a three-judge Supreme Court panel stayed the tribunal’s ruling until Akram has appealed.

“The bench today suspended the order of the election tribunal disqualifying Shaikh Mohammad Akram and the notification by Election Commission of Pakistan declaring Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi a returned candidate,” a court official told AFP.

The court would hear the appeal in three months time, he added.



Akram’s lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan argued that the tribunal could not declare the runner-up as victor because when a candidate was disqualified, a fresh election should be held.

The ASWJ is widely seen as a front for Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a group formed in the 1980s and responsible for murdering hundreds of Shiite Muslims.