Sharif quits Pakistan coalition (updated)

L'annonce du retrait de la Ligue musulmane du Pakistan va toutefois rendre plus délicate encore la tâche d'une coalition gouvernementale très fragile depuis sa victoire aux législatives, en février, malgré l'obtention, il y a une semaine, de la démission du président Pervez Musharraf. Ce dernier, menacé d'une procédure de destitution, avait finalement

By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad. Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif Nawaz Sharif pulled his party out of the ruling coalition on Monday, citing differences with the bigger Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) over restoring judges who were dismissed by former president Pervez Musharraf.

“We have been forced to leave the coalition. We joined the coalition to promote democracy and independence of the judiciary. Unfortunately the commitments made by the PPP were not honored,” Mr Sharif announced after a meeting of his party. The departure of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) – is not expected to force a general election as the party of assassinated former prime minster Benazir Bhutto, which leads the coalition, should be able to gather enough support to govern, analysts say.There were also tensions over who should replace Mr Musharraf, who quit last week to avoid impeachment. Mr Sharif announced the PML’s decision to nominate Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, a highly respected former judge, as its candidate to contest the presidential election.

The PPP announced on Saturday that Bhutto’s widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, would be its candidate. Mr Sharif said that violated an earlier agreement with the PPP for a non-partisan candidate if the presidency retained certain powers, including that to dismiss parliament.

Mr Sharif’s decision followed almost three months of wrangling between the two parties over whether to restore judges sacked in November, including Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary, former chief justice of the supreme court. Mr Chaudhary last year emerged as a symbol of an independent judiciary when he defied Mr Musharraf’s decision in March 2007 to sack him on unclear charges of misconduct.

Mr Chaudhary appealed to his peers at the supreme court against Mr Musharraf’s order, and was restored back in July 2007 in a landmark decision. But he was again dismissed among 60 judges in November, hours after Mr Musharraf imposed a nationwide state of emergency.

Western diplomats said Mr Sharif’s move was unlikely to block Mr Zardari’s bid for the office of the president in elections due on September 6, nor was it likely to bring down the PPP-led coalition government. The PPP led government was set to continue in office with the support of two powerful regional political parties – the Karachi based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party which holds sway over large parts of the north west frontier province which borders Afghanistan. Mr Sharif himself said he had no immediate plans to bring down the government. But a senior western diplomat warned that the break in the coalition now offered the prospect of a “much more powerful opposition coming to challenge the PPP”. The PML-N’s main stronghold is the Punjab province which it rules independently and which is home to more than 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population.

Mr Zardari has faced accusations of corruption in the past which his opponents say have tainted him. But in his defence, Mr Zardari and other PPP leaders say that the corruption-related allegations were driven with malicious intent and have never been conclusively proven.