ISLAMABAD: Leaders of Pakistan’s new coalition will meet this week to settle differences over the restoration of judges dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf who could reopen legal challenges to his rule.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto signed a coalition pact last month with the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after they defeated Musharraf’s allies in February 18 polls.

A major element of the pact was the restoration of judges Musharraf sacked after he imposed emergency rule in November.

But despite the agreement, the two main coalition parties do not see eye to eye on the issue.

Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf overthrew in a 1999 coup, made the restoration of the judges the main plank of his election campaign and is pushing hard for them to get their jobs back.

If reinstated, the judges are expected to take up challenges to Musharraf’s rule that could end up with the president losing office.

The PPP has been less adamant on the restoration of the judges, who include the former Supreme Court chief, partly because, analysts say, the judges might take up a challenge to an amnesty Musharraf introduced in October that cleared graft cases against Bhutto, her husband Asif Ali Zardari and others.

Officials of both parties said Zardari, Bhutto’s political successor, will meet Sharif this week in Islamabad to resolve the issue.

“The leaders are meeting his week and I am confident that the judicial crisis will finally be resolved in a week or 10 days, in line with the Murree accord,” Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Khawaja Mohammad Asif, a senior member of Sharif’s party, told a news conference, referring to the hill town where the pact was signed.

STRAINS

Under the agreement, Zardari pledged to restore the dismissed judges, including former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, within 30 days of forming the government. The 30 days runs out at the end of April.

But strains have surfaced in the two-week-old coalition after some PPP leaders said they were drafting a constitutional package, including judicial reforms, that could include reduction in the tenure of the chief justice or clipping of some of his powers.

Analysts said the PPP plan to link the restoration of the judges to the constitutional package would also mean it would miss the 30-day deadline, which Sharif’s party is unwilling to do.

Differences between the two main parties on the restoration of the judges reflect different attitudes towards Musharraf.

“They think that one can work with Pervez Musharraf to some extent but we think we can’t work with him at all,” said Asif, referring to the PPP.

“These are two approaches (but) I don’t think it will have any impact on the working of the coalition,” he said.

Chaudhry was among the 60 judges Musharraf dismissed in November after he imposed emergency rule on November 3, just days before some of them were due to rule whether his re-election by legislators in October while still army chief was legal. REUTERS

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