An official said the presidency would seek a stay order from the Supreme Court if the judges, sacked by Musharraf during emergency last year, were restored through an executive order issued on the basis of a resolution passed by the National Assembly or lower house of parliament.

“President Pervez Musharraf will not watch such a development as a silent spectator. He will act firmly to block the return of the sacked justices,” the official was quoted as saying by The News.

Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, who returned from Dubai late last night after holding talks with PPP leadership on the issue, said they have agreed that judges will be reinstated through a parliamentary resolution.

Sharif described as “revolutionary” the outcome of his meeting in Dubai with Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to break the impasse over the restoration of the deposed judges.

The breakthrough came during the second day of talks on Thursday between Zardari and Sharif. However, the ruling coalition has failed to meet its self-imposed deadline of restoring the judges by April 30 due to the PPP’s insistence on linking the issue to a proposed constitutional package for judicial reforms.

Sharif told reporters in Lahore that the deposed judges will be restored through a parliamentary resolution as envisaged in the Bhurban Declaration, an agreement signed by the PPP and PML-N in March to form a coalition.

Sharif has also made it clear that the constitutional package for judicial reforms is a “separate issue”.

PML-N leaders, however, said their party would back the package when it is introduced in parliament after the reinstatement of the deposed judges.

“I am happy to tell you that the PPP and PML-N have decided that according to the Bhurban Declaration, the judges will be restored to their pre-November 3, 2007 position,” Sharif said, referring to the sacking of the judges by Musharraf after he imposed emergency last year.

“The judges will be restored and no one can stop us. This is a revolutionary decision for Pakistan because we are undoing the damage Musharraf had done to this country by throwing the judges out of court,” he said. “The judges will go back to their courts with honour, dignity and respect.”

The former prime minister is scheduled to announce the details of the agreement between the PPP and PML-N in Lahore later on Friday.

However, there is a strong possibility that the Supreme Court would take suo motu notice of the restoration of the judges.

A petition seeking a stay order against any such parliamentary resolution or executive order that is pending in the apex court might be taken up soon after the reinstatement of the judges, the official said.

The official said the President’s principal legal aide Sharifuddin Pirzada, who had briefed him on the constitutional position of the non-binding parliamentary resolution and any subsequent executive order, would represent him in the Supreme Court.