PPP and PML-N set to miss deadline

A deadline for coalition partners to reinstate judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf was expected to pass on Monday, rekindling speculation the government might collapse.The restoration of the judges has monopolised the attention of the main coalition partners, the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and that of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, since they won a February 18 election.The failure of the coalition partners to agree on restoring the judges could lead to the collapse of their government. The London talks between PPP and PML-N on resolving the thorny issue of restoring judiciary have ended in a deadlock here on Sunday with the coalition government now on the verge of collapse.The ruling coalition held further intense negotiations in their last ditch efforts to resolve the contentious issue but achieved no breakthrough with each side refusing to budge from its stated position.After two days of fruitless talks in the British capital, the leaders of the two parties entered into the third day still locked into intense negotiations in a bid to break the impasse that has threatened to break-up the two months old coalition government. The third round of negotiations were held soon after the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher met both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari during his stop-over in London on his way home from a Bangladesh visit.The fresh round involved Shahbaz Sharif and Khawaja Muhammad Asif from PML-N side while Rahman Malik and Hussein Haqqani represented PPP. Emerging from the talks, the respected leaders spoke of their failure to reach a consensus on the key question of modalities of reinstating the sacked judges of the Supreme Court.”It looks now it will be missed,” Minister of Education Ahsan Iqbal, who is a top official of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) party, said on Sunday of the Monday deadline. “If the deadline is not met then the PML-N will be forced to review its decision to stay in the cabinet,” he said.Nawaz was due to return to Pakistan on Monday and party leaders would meet later in the day, he said.