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ISLAMABAD: The seemingly harmonious relationship between
Pakistan’s two ruling coalition parties is on the verge of a
breakup as they failed to reach a consensus on the issue of deposed
judges.
The talks for restoration of judges between
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)
ended in failure in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday.
When the word about the failure of talks came to
the PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, he unveiled a three-point agenda to
the PML-N ministers, local TV channel Dawn news reported.
At the first phase, the PML-N ministers are
asked not to attend office and to shun cabinet meetings; the
ministers are further required to pull out of the cabinet at the
final stage, said the Dawn news report.
A local newspaper The News Tuesday reported the
PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif would leave for Dubai on Tuesday evening
in a bid to end the stalemate. It could be the last dialogue between
Sharif and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the issue of deposed
judges, local media reports said.
The PML-N delegation must have smellled a rat
when the talks with PPP on the restoration of judges hit a deadlock
on Monday. Zardari and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif discussed the
issue of the reinstatement of the deposed judges and the overall
political situation of the country. The talks also focused on the
age limit of judges and the tenure of chief justice, besides passing
of a resolution in the parliament for the reinstatement of the
deposed judges with two-thirds majority.
The PML-N insisted that the judges should be
restored before April 30 as per Murree declaration in March. Some
PML-N senior leaders claim that the judges including former chief
justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should be restored
unconditionally. However, PPP attaches more significance to the
independence of the judiciary and prefers to work out a
constitutional package to resolve the issue.
It is reported that the tenure of chief justice
would be limited according to PPP’s proposed constitutional
package. Chaudhry is deemed as an unpredictable person who is likely
to open cases against the moves taken by President Pervez Musharraf
after Nov. 3 last year.
Musharraf declared a state of emergency in
Pakistan and sacked Chaudhry and other judges who declined to take
oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) issued by
Musharraf under the state of emergency.
Together with the PCO, Musharraf also
promulgated a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which granted
amnesty to politicians who faced charges within a specific period.
Zardari was one of those who benefited from the NRO.
Zardari faced quite a number of corruption
charges and the cases were withdrawn, according to NRO.
In addition, a seven-member larger bench of the
Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar
in a petition against the condition of graduation to contest
parliamentary elections ruled that people did not have to get a
bachelor degree to become a parliamentarian, paving the way for
Zardari to contest the forthcoming by-election slated in June.
Sources close to PPP said that Zardari was at
ease with Dogar and hesitated to work with Chaudhry as Chief
Justice.
The PPP and PML-N emerged as the two largest
parties in the National Assembly, lower house of the parliament in
the general elections in February. Nawaz Sharif previously said that
the PML-N would not join the coalition government. However, after
several rounds of talks, the PML-N decided to form a coalition
federal government with PPP in return for PPP’s pledge to restore
the sacked judges including Chaudhry at Murree in Rawalpindi.
As the deadline for the restoration of deposed
judges is just around the corner, the PPP seems not ready to make a
compromise on the issue. The PML-N even threatened to quit the
federal cabinet, leaving open the possibility of an early end of the
short period of the courtship between the two parties which used to
be arch rivals.
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