Coalition parties caught in a dilemma

Islamabad: The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) faces a dilemma after Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari spurned their demand to agree to restore the deposed judges today.

The PML-N leadership held an emergency session yesterday under party chief and former premier Nawaz Sharif at his Raiwind estate near Lahore. They discussed the PPP stance and the nomination of Zardari by the party for the office of president vacated by General Pervez Musharraf, who resigned under the threat of impeachment by the ruling coalition.

Sources said the participants strongly criticised the attitude of the PPP leadership and expressed their disgust over its procrastination on the issue of the reinstatement of the judges despite making solemn commitment a number of times, the last on August 7 when Zardari signed an agreement with Sharif to restore the judges within 24 hours of Musharraf's exit.

Breach of trust

They quoted Sharif as saying he had believed Zardari's words and written undertaking but the PPP leader had breached the trust and clouded the future of the alliance formed after the February general elections in which the party of slain Benazir Bhutto emerged as the largest and the PML-N second in the 342-member National Assembly.

The PML-N chief had given the PPP time till today evening for the implementation of the agreement to reinstate the judges through a resolution of the National Assembly and an executive order.

Zardari said in an interview to BBC Urdu service Saturday he could not give a time frame for the restoration of dozens of judges including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who were all sacked by Musharraf in November last year under emergency rule to thwart a judicial challenge to his controversial re-election by the previous assemblies.

He said his agreement with Sharif was not something that could not be changed, adding that in politics most of the issues are resolved through understanding and not by signing agreements.

The remarks of the PPP leader infuriated the rank and file of the PML-N who said that Zardari was damaging his own credibility by reneging on a written agreement and backing the notion of unprincipled politics.

Postponement

A private channel said the PML-N meeting was in favour of the postponement of the presidential election till after the settlement of the burning issue of the judiciary.

Sharif's party has scheduled a crucial meeting of its central executive and parliamentary group at the Punjab House in Islamabad today evening to make a decision on whether or not to remain in the coalition, with most party leaders pressing for a pullout if no flexibility is shown by the PPP.

While the Election Commission has fixed Tuesday, August 26 for the filing of nomination papers for the presidential election scheduled on September 6, the Awami National Party, a member of the ruling coalition, has come out in support of Zardari's candidature.

A senior PML-N leader and MP, Javed Hashmi, said in a television interview that he wanted to stand for the office of president provided that his party endorses his candidature.