International

Sharif reminds Zardari of promise on judges

ISLAMABAD: Tensions continued to rise in Pakistan’s ruling coalition with Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif setting Monday as the deadline for the restoration of the judges, and appearing reluctant to support the candidature of Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari for the presidency.

“Kya hua tera vaada, woh kasam, woh iraada [ what of your pledge, that promise you made, that intention],” said Mr. Sharif, intoning in a mock sad voice the words of a popular Bollywood song when asked at a press conference in Lahore on Saturday about Mr. Zardari’s obvious reluctance, despite several agreements, to reinstate the judges dismissed by the former President, Pervez Musharraf, when he imposed the November 2007 emergency.

On Friday, the PML(N) leader said a resolution would be introduced in the National Assembly on Monday demanding the restoration of the judges, and after two days of debate, it would be adopted latest on Wednesday, and the judges would be reinstated on the same day.

Perhaps on account of concerns that a long debate could end up in a slanging match over the credentials of the deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhary, on Saturday Mr. Sharif declared the resolution “can be easily adopted in 10 minutes”.

“But even if they want to debate it for a couple of hours, let them do that. After the resolution is adopted, there should be an executive order reinstating the judges, and the judges should be reinstated by Monday night,” he said demanding that the PPP must say by Saturday night if it is willing to implement this “roadmap”.

Mr. Sharif said he and Mr. Zardari had “three agreements” to restore the judges — the Murree Declaration in March, a subsequent one to reinstate them by May 10, and one on August 7.

“In the latest one which was just two weeks ago, we agreed that the judges would be restored with 24 hours of Musharraf’s impeachment or resignation. This is a sacred document for us,” he said.

A PPP delegation, Senate leader Raza Rabbani and Information Minister Sherry Rehman called on Mr. Sharif at his Raiwnd home in Lahore on Saturday afternoon.

Mr. Rabbani said they had asked Mr. Sharif to extend support to Mr. Zardari as the next President, and said a committee formed by the ruling coalition would meet on Sunday to finalise plans for moving a resolution in the National Assembly for the restoration of the judiciary.

While the coalition continues to wrangle, the Taliban have turned up the pressure on the shaky government with a wave of bombings, warning to carry out more if the security forces did not halt operations against them..

On Saturday, in an attack owned up by the Taliban, at least five policemen were killed when a car packed with explosives rammed into a checkpost in Swat. In a second attack in Swat, one civilian was killed and three children were wounded.

In Karachi, a bomb attached to a bicycle exploded near a vehicle carrying a senior police officer, wounding four people including the officer, who has played in investigations and arrests of militants.

Signalling that operations against militants would continue, security forces hit Taliban hide-outs in the Bajaur tribal agency using helicopter gunships, and are reported to have killed 37 militants. Two soldiers were killed in the operations, the military said.

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