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Zardari hopes Pakistani ruling coalition will survive (Roundup)

May 14, 2008, 16:09 GMT

Islamabad - Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, hoped on Wednesday his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would keep Pakistan's ruling coalition intact. The six-weeks-old ruling alliance faced disintegration on Tuesday after nine cabinet members from a major partner Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) resigned over government's failure in restoring the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. However, the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani refused to accept the resignations, in a bid to make last-ditch efforts for reconciliation with PML-N, which is headed by ex-premier Nawaz Sharif. Zardari, who heads PPP after his wife's assassination, said he was in contact with Sharif on the issue. 'Even though we enjoy majority in the parliament without Nawaz Sharif, I am still not ready to leave him,' he told reporters as his party was deliberating on the situation created by the pulling out of coalition partner. The PPP and PML-N formed an alliance after thrashing the political backers of President Pervez Musharraf in February 18 parliamentary elections. But they developed differences over how to restore more than 60 judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Musharraf sacked under an emergency order on November 3. The move was made as the Supreme Court was expected to rule against his controversial presidential re-election for the second five-year term. Sharif pressed for unconditional reinstatement of judges through a parliamentary resolution, followed by an executive order. Zardari, on the other hand, has proposed a reform package limiting the judge's powers, especially those of independent-minded justice Chaudhry, who has repeatedly challenged Musharraf through his judicial activism. Zardari believes Chaudhry's restoration with full powers could lead to a head-on-head collision between the government and president, triggering one more political crisis in the country, a key US ally in the fight against terrorism. Unable to abridge the differences, the two leaders missed a revised, self-imposed deadline to reinstate the judges on Monday, a day after their two-day talks ended with an impasse over the issue in London. This prompted an announcement from Sharif that his party was withdrawing its ministers from the six-week-old cabinet. However, he pledged to continue supporting the PPP-led government on issue-to- issue basis. Zardari said his party was still working on the mechanics for the reinstatement of justices. 'We are preparing a resolution to be tabled in the joint secession of the parliament,' he said. Analysts opine that despite Zardri's claim that he was in contact with Sharif, both leaders had parted away, at least for now, as neither of them was willing to reconsider his stance. This would leave the PPP-led government on shaky ground.

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