Resolution on judges may be tabled by June

Islamabad: Pakistani Law Minister Farooq H. Naik said on Friday a resolution for the reinstatement of the deposed judges could be tabled in the parliament before its June budget session.

He said that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stood for restoration of the judges, who were sacked by President Pervez Musharraf in November last year.

But, the minister emphasised, the party and its leadership wanted to achieve the objective through a constitutional mode.

"You will see that we will restore the judges through constitutional steps."

No date has been announced yet for the start of the parliament's budget session, but it is expected to be called in the first half of the next month.

"We will bring the resolution as soon as possible," he said, declining to give an exact date because that he thought could give rise to another countdown.

The judges' row has already brought the ruling coalition led by PPP under strain after the major partner, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, withdrew its all nine ministers from the federal Cabinet earlier this week.

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said he would try to persuade Sharif to send the ministers, whose resignations have not been accepted yet, back to the Cabinet. The slots are being kept vacant, while other ministers have been assigned additional charge of the portfolios.

Sharif's party has said it would continue to support the government inside the parliament and would not sit in the opposition.