PAKISTAN:POST-MUSHARRAF Pakistan got off to an inauspicious start yesterday, after a meeting of the coalition government resulted in stalemate over the key issue of the judiciary.
Moreover, Taliban militants demonstrated that their campaign would continue with a suicide bombing that killed at least 27.
Pervez Musharraf resigned as Pakistan's president on Monday in order to avoid impeachment following a series of crises, starting with the sacking in March 2007 of the country's chief justice.
The two main parties in the coalition government, Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Pakistan People's Party, could not agree on reinstating judges fired by Mr Musharraf in November. Mr Sharif has made the restoration of the judiciary a central pillar of his policy.
The People's Party had previously said it the former president who was preventing the judges' reinstatement and Mr Sharif's party had pledged that it would happen "immediately" after the president was gone.
But it is understood the two sides are at odds over the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, an activist judge when in office who held the executive to account.
Many believe that Asif Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan People's party, is wary of having Mr Chaudhry standing in judgment over his administration, fearing he might take up challenges to an amnesty from graft charges granted to party leaders last year.
Leaders of two small parties in the four-party alliance downplayed the dispute, but said they had been given three days to resolve the problem between the big parties.
"The coalition has to address the issues and get on with it," said Talat Masood, a retired general who is now a political analyst.
"With the disagreements, first on the president and then on the judges, they are making fools of themselves."
The judges controversy has poisoned relations between the two main parties for months, with at least two deadlines for their restoration missed.
Yesterday, the coalition said a further 72 hours was required, providing a new deadline of Friday.
"We wanted to see it happen within 24 hours," said Ahsan Iqbal, a leader of Mr Sharif's party. "Some of our partners had reservations over timing. I'm very hopeful. The country cannot afford break-up of the coalition."
The popular lawyers' movement, which has campaigned for the judges, meanwhile said it "would not be very patient".
Meanwhile, a suicide bombing outside the emergency ward of a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, a town in the troubled North West Frontier Province, killed at least 27 people, including two police officers, and injured 35.
Pakistan's Taliban movement claimed responsibility, saying that military operations against them must stop.
"What we are seeing is no change in the Pakistan government policies after Musharraf," said a Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Umar. "We want the government to change its policies."
Elsewhere in the northwest, 20 militants were killed in a clash, the government said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's army chief flew to Kabul to see Afghan and Nato commanders in a move that could improve strained military relations.
Gen Ashfaq Kayani attended a meeting of the Tripartite Commission, which is supposed to meet every six months but has not come together for over a year.
Afghan officials have openly accused sections of Pakistan's military of backing the Taliban and being behind the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in July, allegations supported by the US.
The Pakistani army said the meeting "showed satisfaction at the existing level of co-operation".
With the coalition partners' preoccupation with Mr Musharraf out of the way, the US and Pakistan's other allies will be keen to see the government concentrate on fighting Islamist militants.
Even though Musharraf's support for the US-led "war on terror" was unpopular, the coalition government has assured Washington it too wants to control militants who have provided refuge for Taliban and al Qaeda elements near the border with Afghanistan.
- (Guardian service, Additional Reporting: Reuters)