ISLAMABAD - With every flight, Pakistan's state-owned airline demonstrates the economic challenges facing the country's new government. Each time a plane belonging to Pakistan International Airlines takes off, odds are the aircraft is more than 25 years old and not in the best of shape. It is likely running late. It probably has a bigger crew than necessary — the airline has four, even five, times the staff per plane than a typical carrier. And ultimately, each flight is probably costing the state of Pakistan money instead of adding to its bottom line.

The families of Pakistani victims of US drone strikes Thursday wrote to new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urging him to stop the campaign -- by shooting the unmanned aircraft down if necessary. The high court in the northwestern city of Peshawar on May 9 declared the CIA drone strikes targeting suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants to be a "war crime" and ordered Islamabad to take steps to halt them.

Nawaz Sharif is set to become prime minister of Pakistan for the third time as the 342-member National Assembly started its session Wednesday to elect a new prime minister. Amin Faheem of the Pakistan People's Party and Javed Hashmi of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are also standing for the office of prime minister. "Let the bells ring for five minutes calling the members of the national assembly to reach the hall," speaker Ayaz Sadiq said at the start of the election process.

Pakistan's new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called Wednesday for an end to US drone strikes in the country's northwest, after lawmakers endorsed him for an unprecedented third term in office. Some 13 years after he was deposed in a coup and sent into exile, the 63-year-old was formally chosen by a vote in the National Assembly and will take the oath from President Asif Ali Zardari later in the day.