May 12th Date for Pakistani Judges' Return

Former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif says all the senior judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf last year will be reinstated on 12 May.

 

He led his PML-N party in two days of talks with the biggest party in the new coalition government, the PPP, to resolve differences over the judges.

The issue has threatened the stability of the coalition came to power as Mr Musharraf's popularity plummeted.

Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif said on Friday that the ruling coalition will reinstate judges sacked by Pervez Musharraf on May 12, posing a fresh threat to the president's grip on power.

Sharif said the government will introduce a parliamentary resolution to restore some 60 judges, including the country's chief justice, whom Musharraf deposed under a state of emergency in November.

The two-time ex-premier made the announcement a day after holding talks in Dubai with coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari to resolve a deadlock over the issue that threatened their fragile alliance.

Pakistan's judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf last November will be reinstated on May 12, former Pakistan Premier and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif made the announcement in Lahore soon after he returned from Dubai.

Sharif held talks with Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai to resolve the crisis that had threatened to split Pakistan's new coalition government, barely two months after the elections.

The government plans to issue an order not only restoring the judiciary but also revoking all decisions taken by President Musharraf on November 3 last year, including lifting censorship from the media and reopening the cases against him in the Pakistan Supreme Court.

Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday after crucial talks with coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari that a reinstatement of judges that had threatened their alliance will take place as previously agreed.

"It has been decided and reiterated that the restoration of the judges will take place as per the Murree declaration," Sharif said after two days of talks with Zardari in Dubai. He was referring to their agreement in March to reinstate the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.

"There is no ambiguity, there is no doubt about it. You will soon see the results of the discussions," Sharif told reporters.

"The committee has made substantive progress on this issue," Sharif said of the negotiators from both sides, who met at a Dubai hotel.

The announcement comes nearly 14 months after Pakistan's political crisis began with Musharraf's initial suspension of the country's chief justice. Here is a chronology of key events.

-- 2007 --

March 9: Musharraf asks Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to resign over allegations of misconduct. Chaudhry refuses.

March 10-12: Lawyers hold nationwide protests, the first in a series of demonstrations that gather pace over the following three months.