|
Pakistan’s Ruling Coalition Falls Apart
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N) has quit the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after failing to restore the sacked judges by the agreed deadline of May 12. The website of Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jang quoted Nawaz Sharif as saying that his party’s ministers will submit their resignations on Tuesday. The Pakistan Muslim League (N) was the second largest party in the coalition led by Pakistan People’s Party. Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari of Pakistan People’s Party held several rounds of talks in London on Friday and Sunday but failed to reach an agreement, despite mediation by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher. According to the report, Sharif said that his party will not sit on opposition benches in the Pakistani parliament and continue to lend issues-based support to the government. His exit from the ruling coalition will delight President Musharraf. There is no immediate threat to the Gilani government. President Pervez Musharraf had ordered Emergency rule in Pakistan on November 3 last year, when about 60 judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts stood ‘sacked’ after they refused to take a fresh oath under the new emergency order. The deadlock centered on whether to re-instate conscientious Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to his post by removing the incumbent Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, and whether the judges sworn in under the emergency order be removed from their posts. The two parties had announced the deadline of May 12 for the restoration of the judges. The Pakistan People’s Party had said that it did not want to commit another wrong in order rectify one. The Pakistan Muslim League (N) refused to accept a ‘‘minus one’’ formula to restore the judges without the sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Source: Roznama Jang (www.jang.com.pk), Pakistan, May 12, 2008
Posted at: 2008-05-12
| 
