Islamabad, May 12 (ANI): After failing to break the ice with the PPP on the judges restoration issue, the PML-N last evening gave enough indications that it will pull itself out of the PPP-led coalition, but would continue to support it from outside as it "doesn't want to destabalize the government".
PML-N Information Secretary and Federal Education Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that his party had no option but to quit the federal cabinet, and added that it might rejoin the cabinet after the judges were restored.
"If there is no hope that the sacked judges will be restored ... our party will quit the cabinet once and for all," the Daily Times quoted Iqbal as saying in Islamabad last evening.
He further said that conspiracies were being hatched to dismantle the PPP-led coalition, but the PML-N would never become part of such conspiracies. The people of Pakistan had sacrificed a lot for the freedom of judiciary, he said and added that the restoration of the sacked judges was their "collective demand" and had given the mandate to political forces to implement the Charter of Democracy and the Murree Declaration.
Meanwhile, after a fresh round of talks involving PML-N's Khawaja Asif and PPP's Rahman Malik and Hussein Haqqani, PML-N chief Shahbaz Sharif expressed optimism that the coalition government would remain intact, and said both sides were making sincere efforts to resolve the issue in an amicable way
Haqqani said the two sides "are still trying to take this matter to a satisfactory conclusion."
He said experts, lawyers and diplomats were all working together to achieve a satisfactory solution. "We need to continue talking rather than putting any deadlines," he said.
Information Minister Sherry Rehman said the PPP would try to work with the PML-N even if the formal relationship breaks down.
US media predicts fall of Pak govt over judges issue impasse
Washington, May 12 (ANI): Even as today's deadline for restoration of deposed Supreme Court judges is almost certain to expire, and the PML-N expected to take a "stand" today regarding continuance of its support to the PPP-ld coalition government, the US media has predicted fall of the three-month old democratic government in Islamabad.
The new Pakistani government was almost certain to miss the second deadline for restoring sacked judges, "rekindling speculation that the government might collapse", The Washington Post quoted a news agency report as saying.
The news agency report said that the failure of the talks over the judicial dispute in London had raised the "prospect that the three-month-old democratic government will collapse in disarray".
While PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif demanded restoration of all the judges, including former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Zardari wanted them restored but only briefly, said the report and added that Zardari favoured linking the reinstatement of the judges to a constitutional package that would curb President Pervez Musharraf's powers by removing his right to dismiss the government.
Similarly, another report published in several US newspapers noted that the failure of the London talks had "increased the likelihood the ruling coalition could shatter after just six weeks in power and plunge the country back into political turmoil".
According to US media reports, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher is learnt to have advised the Pakistani leaders "to avoid a confrontation" with Musharraf.
Boucher met PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London earlier on Sunday, but a US Embassy official in Islamabad said they did not discuss the judicial crisis.
The US official urged the two leaders "not to take measures that could push the government into direct confrontation with Musharraf", the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior PPP official as saying. It also quoted Federal Education Minister Ahsan Iqbal as saying that the PML-N "will have no justification to remain in the government if the judges were not reinstated". (ANI)
