ISLAMABAD: Leaders of Pakistan’s ruling coalition agreed yesterday to continue their talks on the issue of restoring judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf, a party spokesman said. Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Pakistan’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party, said their party chief Asif Ali Zardari met at his Islamabad residence with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the two leaders “will again meet today.”
Sharif has said he would press Zardari for the reinstatement of judges fired last year by Musharraf, which was a condition of his party joining the coalition after February elections that installed Pakistan’s first civilian-led government in eight years. Sharif’s spokesman, Sadiqul Farooq, described the meeting as crucial for the future of the alliance.
The standoff between the coalition partners — Pakistan’s two main secular political parties — has hampered the functioning of the government amid mounting economic problems and Islamic militancy. Sharif pulled his ministers from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s Cabinet in May, but says his party still supports the coalition.
Zardari, the widowed husband of slain ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto, initially agreed to restore the judges but stalled, later saying that step should be part of a broader set of constitutional reforms.
Sharif also wants to seek the impeachment of Musharraf, who ousted him in a 1999 coup. Zardari appears more reticent at confronting the former army strongman and staunch US ally. “We want to continue this cooperation, but for that, all the promises need to be fulfilled and the dictator who has played havoc with this country should meet his logical end,” Sharif told a news conference Monday.
Public frustration with the government has been growing amid perceptions that internal wrangling has prevented it from coming to grips with pressing national problems.
