Pakistan Views

Talks between leaders of two main coalitions on the issue of restoration of deposed judges have started in Dubai on Wednesday.Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif arrived in Dubai on Tuesday for talks with Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, with a mutual deadline on resolving the dispute set to expire on Wednesday.The two sides agreed last month to push through a parliamentary resolution to restore dozens of judges forced out by President Pervez Musharraf in November last year when he declared a state of emergency.But their dispute resurfaced when the PPP insisted the reinstatement of the judges, including former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, be done via a constitutional package that would include plans for judicial reforms.PML-N insists on adhering to the system agreed upon in March and the 30-day time limit for the judges to get back their jobs. Nawaz Sharif told reporters before leaving for Dubai that he wanted the “coalition to stay together” but warned of “disastrous consequences for democracy and Pakistan” if the judges were not restored.Party sources said the two sides had agreed on the text of the resolution, but the PPP was still pressing for constitutional changes.”In addition to the agreement on the resolution, we have to work out modalities for implementing that resolution in line with the constitutional requirements,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP.The Pakistani legal community and a number of political parties that boycotted the general elections on February 18 are threatening to launch a protest movement if the judges are not restored.Sharif’s trip to Dubai came after the apparent failure of talks between his younger brother Shahbaz, who is the PML-N’s president, and Zardari in Dubai on Monday and Tuesday.”The nation has counted each moment until now and today the day has arrived. If this day passes without a decision it will be a very big tragedy,” senior party leader Javed Hashmi, who led the PML-N while the Sharifs were in exile, told lawyers in the central city of Multan.