By NNN-PTI,
Islamabad : Pakistan’s ruling coalition today appeared to be on the verge of a split after the PPP failed to reach an agreement with its key ally PML-N on the contentious issue of reinstating dozens of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf during last year’s emergency.
Three days of talks in London between Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and their close aides ended in deadlock yesterday due to differences on the modalities for reinstating the judges.
The PML-N, which earlier set May 12 as the deadline for reinstating the judges, has threatened to quit the cabinet today over the issue. This was the second deadline set for restoring the judges after both the parties failed to deliver on a pledge to reinstate them by April 30.
Sharif and his brother, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, flew into Islamabad this morning to be greeted by hundreds of their cheering supporters. They did not speak to the waiting media but said they would make an “important announcement” at a press conference later today.
PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq blamed the PPP for the impasse. “The talks have not moved forward because of a deadlock caused by the PPP. Our credibility is at stake and we do not want to be called cheaters by the people because we had committed ourselves to reinstating the judges,” he said.
The deadlock could not be broken even by the intervention of US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who made a stopover in London on his way back home from Bangladesh to hold separate meetings with Sharif and Zardari.