Sharif threatens to pull out of coalition: US newspaper

PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif has threatened to pull his party out of coalition if the ruling alliance did not reinstate all the deposed judges within next 72 hours, a US newspaper reported Wednesday.

Following are some excerpts from the report of New York Times reported by its correspondent Jane Perlez from Islamabad:

Political order in Pakistan frayed further on Tuesday, the day after President Pervez Musharraf resigned, raising questions about who in the deeply divided civilian government would be in charge and for how long.

The instant deterioration in relations within the government became evident when Nawaz Sharif, the leader of one of the two major parties in the governing coalition, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, walked out of a meeting here over the restoration of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who had been dismissed by Mr Musharraf. He then headed back to his home in Lahore, a four-hour drive away.

Party members said Mr Sharif had delivered an ultimatum to the senior coalition party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Asif Ali Zardari, to consent to the return of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, within 72 hours, or Mr Sharif’s party would leave the government.

Mr Chaudhry was among about 60 Supreme Court and other high court judges suspended by Musharraf last year.

Even by the standards of Pakistan’s hard-boiled and volatile politics, the public discord between the political leaders was surprising, politicians said, a sign that opposition to Mr Musharraf may have been the strongest thread tying them together.

The departure of Mr Sharif’s party would greatly weaken the government — at a difficult time in this volatile nuclear power — but would not necessarily mean there would be new elections.

Still, the situation did not bode well for future stability, with Pakistan facing a sharply declining economy and an emboldened Taliban insurgency that is fast moving past its sanctuaries in the tribal region and reaching into other parts of the country.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, on Tuesday played down the disputes between the coalition members, predicting that the coalition would hold because all parties remained committed to the political order in place after Mr Musharraf’s military rule. Coalition governments, he said, are by definition fractious.

“When they come together, there is bound to be disagreement on how to resolve certain issues and how to address certain problems,” he said during a speech at the New America Foundation in Washington.

The rupture in the coalition appeared serious, perhaps fatal, said Arif Nizami, the editor of the daily newspaper The Nation, and a friend of Mr Sharif’s family. Sharif was “unlikely to cave,” Mr Nizami said.

Zardari and Sharif have sharply disagreed over Mr Chaudhry’s reinstatement ever since they became coalition partners.

Sharif based his election campaign this year on the reinstatement of the judges suspended by Musharraf, including the independent-minded Mr Chaudhry.

A poll in June by the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based group, showed that 83 percent of Pakistanis wanted the old Supreme Court reinstated.

But Mr Zardari has made it clear that he does not want Mr Chaudhry back on the bench.

He prefers the chief justice installed by Mr Musharraf after he imposed emergency rule in November, Abdul Hamid Dogar, according to lawyers familiar with Mr Zardari’s thinking.

The lawyers’ movement that grew around Mr Chaudhry as the ultimate anti-Musharraf symbol in Pakistan regards Mr Dogar as an illegal appointee.

Mr Dogar comes from Sindh Province, Mr Zardari’s political base, and the two men are friendly.

The basis of Mr Zardari’s opposition to Mr Chaudhry rests with a fear that he might undo an amnesty agreement that absolved Zardari of corruption charges, lawyers said.

The amnesty, which applies to bureaucrats and politicians who faced corruption charges, was part of a package arranged by Musharraf when Zardari returned to Pakistan after his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in December.

Members of the Pakistan Muslim League-N said Zardari, in failing to agree to the reinstatement of Mr Chaudhry, was breaking a written accord made with Mr Sharif 10 days ago.