Sharif to join Bhutto party in coalition

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday said he would join the late Benazir Bhutto's party in a coalition, raising the prospect of a government hostile to President Pervez Musharraf.

In an ominous sign for Mr Musharraf, Mr Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Mrs Bhutto's widower and new leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), agreed to restore judges whom Mr Musharraf dismissed when he imposed emergency rule in early November.

Mrs Bhutto's PPP won the most seats in a February 18 general election but not enough to rule alone.

Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML (N), party came second and, while it had promised to support the PPP, Mr Sharif had not previously confirmed his party would join the PPP in forming a government.

"It was... agreed that the PML (N) shall be part of the federal Cabinet," Mr Sharif told a news conference after talks with Mr Zardari, who took over as PPP leader after Mrs Bhutto was assassinated on December 27.

The dismissed judges, including the Supreme Court chief justice, were seen as hostile to Mr Musharraf's October re-election by legislators for a new five-year term as President while he was still army chief. The judges are likely to take up legal challenges to Mr Musharraf if they are restored.

The agreement between the PPP and PML (N) would appear to dash any hope that US ally Mr Musharraf might have had that the party that backs him, the Pakistan Muslim League, which came a poor third in the election, might join a coalition.

The two parties said the reappointment of the dismissed judges would occur through a parliamentary resolution within 30 days of the formation of the government.

Hundreds of lawyers across the country launched a week of protests yesterday to press for the restoration of the judges. It was exactly a year ago that Mr Musharraf suspended the then chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, touching off protests.

Another small party expected to join the coalition is a secular, ethnic Pashtun nationalist party from the northwest. The leader of the Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam religious party, Fazl-ur-Rehman, has also agreed "in principle" to join.