PAKISTAN:FORMER PAKISTANI prime minister Nawaz Sharif agreed yesterday to join the late Benazir Bhutto's party in a coalition, raising the prospect of a government hostile to US ally President Pervez Musharraf.
In an ominous sign for Mr Musharraf, Mr Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Ms Bhutto's widower and the new leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), agreed to restore judges whom Mr Musharraf dismissed when he imposed emergency rule in November.
Ms Bhutto's PPP won the most seats in a February 18th 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 government.
"The coalition partners . . . undertake to form a coalition together for a democratic Pakistan," Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari, who took over as PPP leader after Ms Bhutto was assassinated, said in their agreement.
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 Mr Musharraf might have had that the party that backs him, which came a poor third, might be part of a coalition.
The Awami Nationalist Party, an ethnic Pashtun nationalist party, which has emerged as a major group in the North West Frontier Province by trouncing hardline Islamic groups, will also be part of the PPP-led coalition. The Jamaiat-e-ulema-e-Islam, a major Islamic party, has also said it had agreed "in principle" to join.
Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif agreed the judges would be reappointed through a parliamentary resolution within 30 days of the formation of the government.
Lawyers launched a week of protests yesterday to press for the judges' restoration. Police fired tear gas at protesters near the home of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry where he has been detained since November.
While the parties agreed on a coalition, questions have arisen in Ms Bhutto's party over its candidate for prime minister. Mr Zardari's deputy chairman and Bhutto's close aide, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, has been regarded as the likely choice but a delay in nominating him has led to doubts.
Mr Zardari himself is ineligible as he does not hold a seat in the assembly.
- (Reuters)