Sharif vows 'one last word' with Zardari

Islamabad: Pakistani ruling coalition's key leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Shrif are expected to meet later this month for crucial talks that sources said would determine the fate of the shaky alliance between the two major parties.

Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which is leading the government, is currently in Dubai while former premier Sharif, chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, is in London.

Sources in the PML-N said internal pressure was mounting on the party leadership to bring to an end the uncertainty surrounding the issue of reinstatement of the dozens of judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf under emergency rule last year.

PML-N chief spokesman Ahsan Iqbal has repeatedly said the party, which withdrew its ministers from the cabinet in May over non-reinstatement of the judges, could not wait indefinitely for the resolution of the issue.

Sharif echoed the brewing resentment in the rank and file of the PML-N when he addressed the members of the UK wing of his party on Tuesday.

Treason case

Media reports quoted him as saying that he intended to have a "final word" with Zardari on the coalition agenda.

He said the restoration of deposed judges, paraliment's supremacy, blocking the army's political intervention for all times to come, rejecting foreign dictation and the institution of a treason case against Musharraf were the agenda's key elements.

The former prime minister emphasised that he wanted the coalition to continue and complete "this simple agenda".

He however cautioned about repercussion if the agenda was not implemented by the coalition.

"What would happen to Pakistan if this agenda is not fulfilled? - Only God knows," he said.

Sharif did not mention the date or the venue of his proposed meeting with the PPP co-chairman.

He tried to calm growing concern in his party over the PPP's foot dragging on the judges' restoration, saying they would be reinstated "if not today then in 2009 or even 2010, but rest assured they would be eventually restored, come what may".

He said the PML-N had joined the government on the insistence of Zardari and after an unambiguous understanding that the judiciary would be restored to its pre-emergency status of November 2, 2007.