Sharif ultimatum puts Pakistan coalition at risk

ISLAMABAD // Infighting between Pakistan's coalition partners could see the government collapse today, exactly one week after it showed a united front to force Pervez Musharraf to resign as president. Nawaz Sharif, a coalition leader, has said his Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) will announce a decision today on whether to remain in the government, citing the Pakistan People's Party hesitation to reinstate judges sacked by Mr Musharraf last year. Mr Sharif has given the PPP a deadline of today to state whether or not the judges will be reinstated.

The party, meanwhile, was meeting to decide what to do, said Pervez Rashid, a close aide of Mr Sharif's. "General opinion in the party is in favour of parting ways," he said. However, it was not known if the party would merely withdraw its members from the federal cabinet but continue to offer broad support for the PPP government or whether it will break off all support and join the opposition. Mr Sharif's party needs the PPP's support to sustain its government in the powerful province of Punjab.

Western diplomats and the United States have echoed widespread concern that a power-struggle between the government's two main political parties has hamstrung the country's leadership at a critical time. Pakistan has suffered a spate of suicide attacks in recent weeks, and its military is waging an intensive campaign in tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. Along with the PPP's perceived foot-dragging over the reinstatement of the judiciary, a second source of discord arose over the weekend when the PPP's co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, announced he would accept his party's nomination as a presidential candidate.

Mr Sharif said his party was not consulted on the nomination and would only support Mr Zardari's candidature if he first reduced the president's sweeping powers. The PML-N proposed its own candidate, Javed Hashmi, whom a party spokesmen described as a "respectable" and non-divisive figure, who had been jailed by Mr Musharraf. Zahid Khan, a spokesman for the Awami National Party, the third largest party in the coalition that governs the troubled North West Frontier Province, said yesterday his party had decided to support Mr Zardari.

A major opposition party that is powerful in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, has also backed Mr Zardari's candidacy, indicating that he could try to forge a new political alignment to keep the PPP in power if Mr Sharif withdraws. The former foes have been jostling in a long and attritional battle for the political and moral high ground since coming together in an unlikely alliance. Mr Zardari decide to join an alliance with the PML-N to protect his back from Mr Musharraf and the conservative establishment, which had been bitterly opposed to past PPP governments. The two foes had come together amid cries of "mature politics" and "reconciliation" during a time of national crisis.

One of their first joint statements was a pledge to reinstate 60 judges and the chief justice sacked by Mr Musharraf to permit his re-election as president while army chief during emergency rule in November. Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif pledged to bring back the judges within one month of announcing the formation of their coalition. But nearly six months later, the judges are still out of work. Mr Zardari has accused the judges of being too political, not helping him when he was in jail, and he also believes that the sacked chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, may reopen old corruption cases against him.

At the weekend Mr Zardari played down the significance of the earlier agreements he made with Mr Sharif. "No contract is binding in politics. There can be a rethink on anything. They are not like that Quran or hadeeths," he said. Any remaining common ground shared by the PPP and PML-N was diminished when Mr Musharraf resigned last week rather than face impeachment charges. Now both parties are making back-room overtures to Mr Musharraf's political party, which was trounced in elections but retains a coveted bloc of seats in the Punjab.

The debate on whether to seek the prosecution of Mr Musharraf has gone quiet. A key ally of the United States on the war on terror, Mr Musharraf was accused by his opponents of illegally capturing and selling terrorist suspects to the US. Mr Sharif, who has accused Mr Musharraf of treason, has gone silent on the issue as he consented to a US- and Saudi Arabian-backed deal to grant the former military ruler indemnity.

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