ISLAMABAD, 30 April 2008 — Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is leaving for talks in Dubai with coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari after two rounds of negotiations between his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party failed to resolve the issue of sacked judges.

The judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, were sacked Nov. 3 last year by President Pervez Musharraf who feared they might uphold a challenge to his presidency on the ground of his running for the post while he was still army chief.

Sharif’s party wants the 60-odd judges reinstated to their previous posts while the PPP wants a constitutional package for the judiciary that would also fix the tenure of judges.

An interview by Zardari with Geo television on Monday made differences between the coalition partners over the issue starker. Zardari said he was more interested in strengthening the judiciary than individual judges “so that no Asif Ali Zardari is allowed to languish in prison for eight long years for no offense.”

Zardari said that he went five times to the court of Chaudhry to seek justice in the BMW case wherein he was kept in prison. He said that according to the law, if full duty is not paid on an imported vehicle, the vehicle is impounded. The owner is not arrested.

Zardari said in his case, the vehicle was impounded and he too was put behind bars.

Officials said the latest round of inter-party talks, held Monday in Dubai, were inconclusive. Sharif’s brother Shahbaz represented the PML(N) at the talks. Noor Tanveer, a spokesman for Sharif, who leads the second-largest party in the coalition, said Sharif would fly to Dubai to join more talks today.

A senior official from Sharif’s party repeated a threat that the party would pull its ministers from the Cabinet if the judges were not reinstated on time, but insisted the party would remain in the coalition. Sadiqul Farooq said while the deadline looked difficult to meet, there was “still hope” for an agreement. Today is the deadline for reinstating the judges.

Information Ministry Sherry Rehman, a party colleague of Zardari, said yesterday that reinstating the judges required legislation that “needs some time” to pass Parliament. “I don’t think in this situation the coalition is threatened,” she said.

Musharraf removed Chaudhry in November just as the court prepared to rule on the legality of his re-election the previous month. The army strongman accused the judge of corruption and conspiring against him.

Chaudhry had shown an unusual degree of independence, blocking government privatization deals and investigating complaints that its spy agencies were holding opposition activists incognito under the cover of fighting international terrorism.

Some analysts predict Musharraf might have to quit if Chaudhry is restored and revisits the president’s disputed re-election.

Mian Sattar, a senior lawmaker for the PPP, said the party was committed to an independent judiciary but was worried about “judicial adventurism.” “We also want to change the system,” Sattar said. “The solution is the constitutional amendments and the revival of the judiciary should be on the same day.”

In the Geo interview, Zardari also said people wanted him to resolve the Kashmir issue, which had been hanging fire for the last 60 years, “within days.”

The PPP leader said his government would not consider releasing Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was put under house arrest by President Musharraf after he was accused of smuggling nuclear material out of Pakistan.

“Neither did we arrest him nor are we going to release him,” asserted Zardari, who took over the party after his wife and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December last year.

“We have left this matter to President Musharraf and he has to take a decision in this regard.”

Zardari, who was blamed for massive corruption during Bhutto’s two terms as prime minister, said he was not interested in becoming prime minister and Yousaf Raza Gilani would continue as prime minister for five years.

“Musharraf as a civilian president has certain question marks. I would like to bring a civilian president,” he said while answering a question about impeachment proceedings against Musharraf.

— With input from agencies