Sharif, who heads the PML(N), the second largest constituent of the coalition, said, “If the judges are not restored we will perhaps be forced to sit in the opposition. We will not try to bring the government down. But, of course, then we have no choice but sit in the opposition.”
The PML(N)’s coalition with Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) “came into being on the basis that democracy would be strengthened and judges restored”, Sharif said.
“And, of course, we would restore the Constitution as it stood before Musharraf overthrew an elected government,” he added.
According to Sharif, Zardari had insisted on impeaching the president first.
“Although I wasn’t convinced with his arguments, I went along. I asked if the judges would be reinstated within 24 hours of impeachment, and he said yes.
Musharraf resigned on Monday to avoid impeachment. Since then, Zardari and Sharif have had two rounds of talks, but have been unable to bridge their differences.
Observers believe Zardari is not keen on reinstating the judges because he fears that Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary could, after he returns, scrap the National Reconciliation Ordinance, the controversial law under which Musharraf had scrapped corruption charges against PPP leaders.
The public discord between Sharif and Zardari is surprising even by the volatile standards of Pakistani politics, politicians said. It is a sign that opposition to Musharraf may have been the strongest thread tying them together. Should Sharif pull out, the government will be weakened greatly, though it may not necessarily mean fresh elections immediately.
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, had on Tuesday played down the disputes between the coalition members, predicting the coalition would hold because all parties remained committed to the political order in place after Musharraf’s rule.
However, Arif Nizami, editor of The Nation and a friend of Sharif’s family, said today that the rupture in the coalition was serious, perhaps fatal. Sharif was “unlikely to cave,” he said.
Zardari and Sharif have sharply disagreed over Justice 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 Chaudhry. But Zardari has made it clear that he does not want Chaudhry back on the bench, and prefers Abdul Hamid Dogar, the chief justice installed by Musharraf after he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.
... contd.
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