Pakistan's month-old government faced its first major crisis on Tuesday after talks on reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf were deadlocked, prompting Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to threaten withdrawal of its ministers from cabinet.
Two days of parleys between Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and a PML-N team lead by party president Shahbaz Sharif in Dubai ended inconclusively on Tuesday with both parties failing to finalise modalities for restoring the judges despite a 30-day deadline set to expire on Wednesday.
The PML-N had sent a team for consultations with Zardari, who is currently in Dubai to meet his family.
Sources said the talks ran into rough weather over two issues the PPP's decision to link the restoration of the judges to a constitutional package for judicial reforms, and the tenure for deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry once he is restored.
PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq admitted the talks had run into problems and warned his party might withdraw its ministers from the cabinet if the deadline for restoring the judges is not met.
He, however, said the PML-N would not take any step that would 'damage' the coalition government.
"Our joining of the federal cabinet was conditional. We will review the decision and we may withdraw our ministers from the cabinet but that is still a supposition," Farooq said.
The PML-N, he said, is hopeful that both parties would fulfil 'their solemn pledge to the nation' on reinstating the sacked judges.
"We are not going to weaken this government. We can withdraw our ministers to show to the people of Pakistan that we are loyal to our commitments. We are not going to damage the government because we are going to provide the government ample opportunity to serve the people," Farooq said.
The PML-N will make a decision on its future course of action after April 30, he said.
Top PML-N leader Raja Zafrul Haq told media persons that party chief Nawaz Sharif would go to Dubai to confer with his brother Shahbaz on the talks held with Zardari.
Sharif is also expected to hold talks with Zardari.
Sources said the PML-N had instructed its ministers not attend office till the impasse over the restoration of judges was resolved.
If the deadline of April 30 is not met, the ministers could be withdrawn from the cabinet, the sources said.
Attacking Musharraf, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif earlier alleged that president's office has been reduced to a conspiracy coterie and spoke of the need to rid the country of the 'dictator'.
The President's office had been trying to create divisions between the coalition government partners, a senior PML-N leader told Gulf News.
Zardari was earlier scheduled to return to Pakistan on Sunday but extended his stay for the talks.
"There are no differences in the coalition government on the issue of reinstatement of judges but there are different recommendations on doing it," Shahbaz Sharif told media persons.
Meanwhile, Zardari met a delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Dubai and reached an agreement on a power-sharing formula in Sindh.
The relationship between the two parties had soured after an incident in which former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim was roughed up.
PML-N spokesman Farooq also said the PPP had not taken his party 'into confidence about the constitutional package' for judicial reforms.
"If a constitutional package has to be tabled in Parliament, they should have taken us into confidence," he said.
Zardari has been non-committal on the April 30 deadline despite an agreement signed by the PPP and PML-N last month on restoring the judges within a month of forming government.
Sections of the PML-N have also been upset by his comments in an interview on Monday night that this agreement was 'just a political statement'.
Farooq said: "This agreement is in black and white and was duly signed. It has its own value and it is not just a political statement. We feel if we make such a statement, we will lose our credibility."
The restoration of the judges is a sensitive matter for the PML-N as it was one of the main issues in its election campaign and garnered it a lot of public support.
On the other hand, PPP parliamentarian Mian Sattar said his party had 'no problems' with the reinstatement of deposed Chief Justice Chaudhry but wanted a constitutional package for judicial reforms to prevent any 'judicial activism and judicial adventurism'.
