Pakistani coalition calms fears of break-up over judges

Leaders of Pakistan's month-old ruling alliance narrowed differences yesterday over the reinstatement of judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf to calm fears that the coalition was about to break up.

"The meeting has made progress in a very positive way. We are now satisfied," former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told journalists after holding a second day of emergency talks with Asif Ali Zardari, widower of the late Benazir Bhutto.

The parties of Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari, who took over leadership of the Pakistan People's Party after his wife's assassination, defeated President Musharraf's allies in a parliamentary poll in February.

They formed a government after forging a post-election alliance, but they have been at loggerheads over an unfulfilled promise to bring back the judges Mr Musharraf removed when he imposed emergency rule for six weeks in November.

Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari, whose PPP heads the four-party coalition, had pledged their government would pass a resolution in the National Assembly to bring the judges back within a month of being sworn in.

That self-imposed deadline passed on Wednesday. Speaking after consultations with Mr Zardari in Dubai, Mr Sharif said the resolution would be passed, regardless of the delay.

"There is no ambiguity, there is no doubt about it," Mr Sharif said. "The restoration would take place through a resolution... the details will be revealed tomorrow."

The leadership of Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), better known as PML-N, is due to meet in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore today.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman, a senior PPP leader, expressed confidence in the outcome of the talks in Dubai.

"We are very satisfied with the results of the talks... (There is) nothing to worry about, really," Mrs Rehman said. The talks took place in Dubai because Mr Zardari had gone there at the weekend to see his daughters at the home where Mr Bhutto had lived until her return from self-exile in October.

The PPP-led government of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani needs stability to address the challenge of Islamist militancy and economic problems in the shape of widening trade and fiscal deficits, rising inflation, and increasing power cuts.

Western allies in the war on terrorism dread nuclear-armed Pakistan sliding into a prolonged period of political stability.

Mr Sharif, the Prime Minister Mr Musharraf overthrew in 1999, wants the judges brought back as a first step to driving his usurper out of the presidency.

The restored judges could revive challenges to the legitimacy of Mr Musharraf's re-election in October by an outgoing Parliament while still army chief.