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Pakistan PM refuses resignations by Sharif's ministers (Roundup)

May 13, 2008, 14:27 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani refused to accept the resignations of cabinet members from the major political alliance in a bid to save the six-week old coalition government from parting over reinstating judges. All but one of the nine members of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) party on Tuesday handed in their resignations from the 24-member cabinet, dealing a setback to the fragile coalition government. The ninth minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, will present his resignation on his return from a trip abroad. 'The prime minister told us that he would not accept our resignations,' Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, told reporters in Islamabad after meeting Gilani. An official from the prime minister's office confirmed to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan that Gilani had said: 'The final decision about the resignations will be taken in consultation when the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari returns home from London.' Analysts believe Zardari, widower of slain Benazir Bhutto who heads her PPP now, would try to convince Sharif to show some flexibility on the contentious issue of reinstating around 60 judges to the supreme and high courts. They were axed by Musharraf on November 3 as the Supreme Court was expected to rule against the embattled president's re-election for a another five-year term. However, Khan said it was unimportant whether their resignations were accepted. 'We have resigned anyway.' Sharif announced on Monday that his party was withdrawing its ministers from the six-week-old cabinet after his two-day talks with Zardari in London ended in stalemate on Sunday. The move came a day before the expiry of a revised, self-imposed deadline by the two leaders to reinstate the judges, including deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Independent-minded Chaudhry, who proved to be a challenger to Musharraf because of his judicial activism, remained the bone of contention as Sharif pressed for his unconditional reinstatement through a parliamentary resolution. Zardari had proposed a reform package limiting the judge's powers. Analysts said Zardari was reluctant because Chaudhry, once restored, could again start legal petitions against a controversial law to drop graft and corruption charges against him. On Tuesday, a higher court, headed by Musharraf's favourite judge in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, acquitted Zardari of smuggling charges. He was accused in 1997 of illegally sending crates packed with artefacts to London through state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The taking back of removed judges is also vital for Musharraf, whose re-election for the next term could be annulled by Chaudhry and his associates once they are restored, further clouding the political future of embattled president, a key US ally in the fight against terrorism.

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