Sharif sets new deadline for restoration of deposed Pakistani judges

Twice-elected former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has given his coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari deadline till Monday to reinstate the Pakistani judges who were deposed by former President Pervez Musharraf on November 3 last year.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting with a delegation of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that heads the ruling coalition at his Raiwind farmhouse near his hometown <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Lahore Saturday, Sharif said he told the delegation that judges should be restored by Monday.

 “Free judiciary is mandatory for the sake of country and next generation. If we did not support constitution and law, coming generations would not forgive us,” the head of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) said.

Sharif said that PPP Co-chairperson Zardari had earlier assured him that the judges would be reinstated within 24 hours of Musharraf’s impeachment but he did not fulfil the assurance.

The PML-N supreme leader said that his party and he himself is not a candidate for presidential slot despite having right to it.

Earlier, a PPP delegation requested Sharif to support Zardari for presidential slot but Sharif reportedly urged Zardari to fulfil his promise of restoring the deposed judges first which he had committed several times.

The PPP delegation comprised Leader of the House in Senate Raza Rabbani, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman, Syed Khurshid Shah and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.

Sources said the PPP delegation briefed Sharif about the decisions taken in the meeting of PPP central executive committee on the issues of presidential election and restoration of deposed judges through Parliament. They said Sharif still has reservations about the PPP policy of nominating Zardari, widower of slain Benazir Bhutto, for election to the office of the president and restoration of judges.