Reuters : Pakistani lawyers press government

Pakistani lawyers press government

By Augustine Anthony | August 28, 2008

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Protesting lawyers blocked roads across Pakistan on Thursday to press the government to reinstate judges purged by former president Pervez Musharraf, as militants attacked police in the northwest, killing 11 people.

A bitter disagreement between the country's two main political parties over the judges led to a split in the ruling coalition this week, dashing hopes for stability in the nuclear-armed country after Musharraf's resignation last week.

Political uncertainty, militant violence and economic woes have undermined investor confidence, leading to a sharp slide in Pakistan stocks which authorities have tried to halt by setting a floor for the key share index.

Black-suited lawyers sat down on roads in all major cities to press the coalition, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to reappoint dozens of judges Musharraf dismissed when he imposed emergency rule in November.

Lawyers were at the forefront of opposition to Musharraf after the former army chief clashed with the then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in March 2007, and their protests pose a challenge to the coalition that came to power after February elections.

"The lawyers are proving how organized they are, that they have total consensus, and this protest will continue until the chief justice is restored," firebrand lawyers' leader Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore.

The country's second biggest party, headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, left the coalition on Monday, saying Bhutto's party broke promises to give the judges their jobs back.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, led by her widower Asif Ali Zardari, has been dragging its feet on the judges because it fears Chaudhry will take up a challenge to an amnesty granted to Zardari and other party leaders from graft charges, analysts say.

Several thousand slogan-chanting lawyers and flag-waving activists squatted on main roads in central Lahore for about two hours, bringing traffic to a standstill.

In an ominous sign for the government, protesters directed their anger at Zardari, who looks set to become president in a September 6 vote by legislators.

"Down with Zardari" and "Zardari, killer of Pakistani judiciary", hundreds of lawyers and activists chanted in the eastern city of Multan.

In Islamabad, protesters tore down banners of Zardari while similar protests were held in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and smaller cities.

POLICE BUS BLOWN UP

As the politicians tussle over the judges and who will replace Musharraf as president, violence has been surging in the northwest where security forces are battling militants in several areas and the militants are striking back with bombs.

Government soldiers supported by air strikes killed nearly 50 militants in heavy clashes in the northwest on Wednesday, while on Thursday, a car bomb blew up a police bus near the town of Bannu, killing nine policemen and two passers-by, police said.

Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism was deeply unpopular but Zardari, seen as close to the United States, has vowed to press ahead with the effort.

Washington, an important source of aid for Islamabad, says al Qaeda and Taliban militants orchestrate violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the West from sanctuaries in the northwest.

Nervous investors withdrawing their funds from Pakistan in the face of violence and political instability have sent the country's financial markets skidding lower.

The rupee has lost about a quarter of its value against the dollar this year. Pakistan's stock market, which rose for six consecutive years to 2007 and was one of the best-performing markets in Asia in that period, has fallen about 36 percent.

Struggling to halt the slide, stock exchange authorities announced early on Thursday they were setting a floor for the index at Wednesday's closing level.

Some dealers said the move would help confidence, at least in the short-term, and the index opened more than 1 percent higher before slipping back a bit. It closed up 0.64 percent.

Investors hope next week's presidential election, when members of the country's four provincial assemblies and two-chamber national parliament vote for Musharraf's replacement, will bring some clarity to the political outlook.

Bhutto's party has nominated Zardari while Sharif's has put up a former Supreme Court judge, Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui.

The main pro-Musharraf party nominated a former government minister and top party official, Mushahid Hussain Sayed.

Zardari telephoned Sharif on Thursday to ask him to rejoin the coalition and withdraw his candidate but Sharif declined both requests, a Sharif party official said.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jerry Norton)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

AFP : Pakistan turmoil deepens after coalition split

Pakistan turmoil deepens after coalition split

August 26, 2008

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan's political turmoil deepened Tuesday after the two main parties in the ruling coalition split, weakening the fragile government just a week after president Pervez Musharraf resigned.

The world's only nuclear-armed Islamic nation, already facing a fresh campaign of bombings by a resurgent militant movement, now faces the prospect of a bitter political battle over the choice of Musharraf's successor.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif pulled his party out of the coalition on Monday, saying they were moving to the opposition because of what he said were the broken promises of the other main party's leader, Asif Ali Zardari.

He said Zardari had gone back on a pledge to reinstate dozens of judges sacked last year by Musharraf -- an issue that has been at the centre of a political dispute in Pakistan for the past year.

"We have taken this decision after we failed to find any ray of hope and none of the commitments made to us were fulfilled," Sharif said on Monday. "This situation forced us to withdraw our support."

Zardari, in a televised address late Monday, appealed for Sharif's return to the government.

"We are sad over Nawaz Sharif's decision. We want to move together and solve the problems facing the nation," he said. "We will request Nawaz Sharif to return to the government."

Lawyers meanwhile called for a nationwide protest on Thursday to demand the reinstatement of the judges, who were pushed out as Musharraf purged his opponents in the judiciary last year.

Sharif's PML-N party has now put forward its own candidate to challenge Zardari, widower of another former premier, Benazir Bhutto, on September 6, when lawmakers will select who will be the next president.

Zardari and the PML-N candidate, former judge Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui, will face off against the party formerly behind Musharraf, which has nominated its secretary general Mushahid Hussain.

Candidates filed their election papers on Tuesday.

Political chaos is nothing new in Pakistan, which has been under military rule -- including under General Musharraf -- for more than half of its existence since being partitioned from India after World War II.

But the months of turmoil that eventually forced Musharraf to resign last week under threat of impeachment, and the new split between Sharif and Zardari, have made Western allies jittery about Pakistan's role in the "war on terror".

The United States, which turned Musharraf into an ally after the September 11 attacks and has supplied the country with tens of billions of dollars in aid since then, played down the importance of the split.

"I don't anticipate it would have any impact on our joint efforts to combat extremism," said US State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

The strategically important country -- which has the second-largest Muslim population in the world -- has seen a resurgence of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militant activity in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border.

While critics have long charged that Pakistan's powerful intelligence service actually helps to support the militants, the military is nevertheless also pursuing a tough campaign against Islamist guerrillas.

Clashes in one region alone have left around 500 people dead in the last fortnight, and the Pakistani Taliban have said that the latest wave of suicide bombings will continue until the assault is stopped.

But the government said Monday it had banned the main Taliban militant umbrella group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and frozen its bank accounts and assets.

Unknown gunmen opened fire on the car of a US diplomat in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday, but she escaped unhurt, police said.

BBC : Pakistan coalition in major split

Pakistan coalition in major split

August 25, 2008

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pulled his PML-N party - the country's second biggest - out of the multi-party governing coalition.

He has been in dispute with the country's biggest party, the PPP, on the reinstatement of judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf.

The two sides also disagree over who should be the next president.

The move throws Pakistan into further turmoil at a time of economic gloom and growing threats from militants.

The Pakistani rupee closed at a record low on Monday and shares fell a further two per cent.

'Constructive role'

Mr Sharif told journalists in Islamabad that the PPP - led by Benazir Bhutto's widower Asif Zardari - had broken promises, in particular over the issue of the judges. "When written documents are repeatedly flouted, trust cannot remain," he said. "We cannot find a ray of hope."

The PPP fears that if all the judges sacked by Mr Musharraf get their jobs back, they may invalidate an amnesty that paved the way for Mr Zardari and Ms Bhutto to return to the country last year.

That would leave Mr Zardari open to prosecution on long-standing corruption charges.

However, Mr Sharif said his party wanted to play a constructive role in opposition, indicating that he would not try to bring down the government for now.

Uncomfortable

Mr Sharif also said the PML-N was putting forward a 'non-partisan' name forward for the presidential election due on on 6 September, a former Supreme Court chief justice, Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui.

The two party leaders had agreed to reduce the powers of the presidency in a country where the president has in the past dismissed democratically elected governments.

Mr Sharif says as long as the presidency remains a powerful post, a non-partisan candidate acceptable to everyone, rather than Mr Zardari, should have been agreed on.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Islamabad says the PPP has other parties in coalition and the government will not fall. However, the PPP may find Mr Sharif to be an uncomfortably powerful figure to have in opposition at a time when the country lacks a sense of political direction.

Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif worked together to threaten Mr Musharraf with impeachment which led him to resign last week.

The United States gave huge financial backing to Mr Musharraf during his nine years as president as Pakistan became a front line nation in Washington's self-declared 'war on terror'.

US administration officials are concerned that militants are gaining strength in Pakistan and that the coalition's current policy of negotiating with militants is not working.

Last week a double suicide attack at a munitions attack in the town of Wah in Punjab province left nearly 70 people dead.

The Pakistan Taleban claimed responsibility for what was the heaviest attack on a military installation by a militant group in the country's history.

Dawn : PML-N quits coalition

PML-N quits coalition

August 25, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25 (AFP): Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif Monday said his party had decided to quit Pakistan's ruling coalition over differences on the restoration of judges sacked by ex-president Pervez Musharraf.

Sharif said his Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) had decided to sit on the opposition benches in parliament.

“We have taken this decision after we failed to find any ray of hope and none of the commitments made to us were fulfilled” by Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of coalition partner the Pakistan People's Party, he told a news conference.

PML-N names own party candidate for Pakistan president: Mr. Nawaz Sharif named former chief justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui as his party's candidate for presidential polls scheduled for eptember 6.

Dawn : PML-N withdraws from coalition, to sit on opposition benches

PML-N withdraws from coalition, to sit on opposition benches

August 25, 2008

LAHORE, Aug 25: The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif addressed a press conference in Lahore announcing the PML-N had decided to part ways with the coalition with Pakistan Peoples Party, a local television channel reported.

He said the PML-N was forced to withdraw from the coalition and sit on the opposition benches because the major partner in the coalition, the PPP, had not honoured any of the promises that it had made to the PML-N.

Dawn : PML-N mulls leaving coalition

PML-N mulls leaving coalition

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25 (AFP): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is meeting Monday afternoon in Islamabad to decide whether to stay in the four-party coalition after the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) refused to give a timeframe for the deposed judges’ reinstatement, PML-N officials said.

“They (PPP) have unilaterally ended the basis of the coalition,” PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said.

“Nawaz Sharif will announce the future course of action at 06:00 p.m. after holding consultations with the party,” Iqbal said.

WSJ : Pakistan's Governing Coalition Is on the Brink of Collapse

Pakistan's Governing Coalition Is on the Brink of Collapse

By PETER WONACOTT | August 24, 2008

Pakistan's governing coalition is on the verge of collapse less than a week after the partners successfully forced out the country's former army chief and president, Pervez Musharraf.

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) will meet Monday to decide whether to abandon support for the Pakistan People's Party, the coalition's senior partner, according to a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League, Ahsan Iqbal. Mr. Iqbal says the Pakistan People's Party has "unilaterally" taken recent decisions, casting a pall over a political partnership formed after February's parliamentary elections. The coalition's two main parties have split sharply over the restoration of judges that Mr. Musharraf had ousted, as well as who his successor should be.

"In a way, they are trying to drive us out of the coalition," said Mr. Iqbal in a telephone interview. "It seems they've made up their minds they want to do it themselves."

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) wants the judges restored on Monday and presidential elections scheduled for Sept. 6 to choose Mr. Musharraf's successor to be postponed by one month to give the party time to nominate its own candidate or agree on a joint candidate. A pullout from the Pakistan Muslim League would force the coalition leader to hunt for new political partners to maintain a majority in parliament.

The Pakistan People's Party has put forward its leader, Asif Ali Zardari, to replace Mr. Musharraf. On Saturday, Mr. Zardari, widower to slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, agreed to run for the post in a vote by an electoral college.

Another source of tension is the restoration of judges. The Pakistan People's Party has delayed returning some 60 judges to their jobs, after they were dismissed by Mr. Musharraf during a temporary state of emergency last year. In an interview last week, Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), said Mr. Zardari had agreed earlier this month (August) to reinstate all the judges immediately after Mr. Musharraf stepped down if the two partners joined forces to impeach Mr. Musharraf.

"So we supported him on impeachment," said Mr. Sharif. "It's now his turn to support us on the reinstatement of judges."

Senator Babar Awan, a PPP leader said, "Parliament will take the decision on the judges' issue."

The crumbling of Pakistan's governing coalition would deal a fresh blow to a country barreling into multiple danger zones. High fuel and food prices – as well as skittish investors -- have wracked the economy. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Taliban continue to hit military and civilian targets, in a defiant sign of strength despite a military campaign against them. Political infighting has prevented strong leadership on either front.

--Zahid Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this article.

AFP : Zardari acceptable as Pakistan president if strips powers: Sharif

Zardari acceptable as Pakistan president if strips powers: Sharif

August 23, 2008

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) — Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif Saturday said he was ready to accept the widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto as president if he does away with powers to dissolve parliament.

Former president Pervez Musharraf had strengthened his powers through a 17th constitutional amendment, which gave the president the power to dismiss the government and dissolve parliament.

Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari won the unanimous backing of lawmakers from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on Friday but has yet to announce if he will stand in the September 6 poll.

Sharif, whose party is a major partner with the PPP in the ruling coalition, made his comments came after a PPP delegation met him to solicit his support for Zardari in the election.

"I have no objection over Mr Zardari contesting presidential election, if he removes the 17th amendment," Sharif told reporters at his residence after meeting the PPP delegation led by Information Minister Sherry Rehman.

Sharif said he had a firm agreement with Zardari on the restoration of judges sacked by Musharraf and clarified that neither he nor anyone from his party wanted to become president.

"The agreement says that next president will be after removing 17th amendment. The PPP will have a right to nominate its own president then," Sharif said.

Sharif said Zardari had also agreed that judges sacked by Musharraf during a state of emergency last year would be restored within 24 hours of his impeachment or resignation and lamented that it had not been honoured.

"What happened to your promise?" Sharif said, quoting from a famous Indian heart-break movie song from the late 1970s.

"It had been agreed that when Musharraf would resign or get impeached, judges were to be reinstated automatically within 24 hours," Sharif said and added that he had given a new ultimatum to Zardari.

"We have asked them to tell us by Saturday night whether or not judges can be restored on Monday or not," Sharif said.

Sharif said that he was flexible over Monday's deadline previously because the presidential election schedule had not been announced and it was announced without asking him when he was addressing a press conference on Friday.

Dawn : Nawaz puts his foot down

Nawaz puts his foot down

By Nasir Jamal | August 23, 2008

LAHORE, Aug 23: Differences between two major parties in the ruling coalition — Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N — appeared to be widening on Saturday as Nawaz Sharif moved his deadline for reinstatement of the deposed judges forward by two days, to Monday.

He warned that his party would be “free to take its own decision if the new deadline is not respected”.

“We have asked the PPP leadership to let us know if it is prepared to restore the judges by Monday,” Mr Sharif told reporters after a three-hour meeting with a PPP delegation, which comprised Raza Rabbani, Khursheed Shah and Sherry Rehman.

The PPP leaders had called on Nawaz Sharif to seek his support for Asif Ali Zardari’s candidature.

Mr Sharif said he was bringing the deadline forward because “we were unaware about the announcement of the schedule for the presidential election and nomination of Mr Zardari for the office by his party when we agreed on Wednesday as the deadline for restoration of the judiciary to its pre-Nov 3 position,” he told a questioner.

Although he did not say it in so many words, he made it amply clear that his party would neither stay in the coalition nor support Mr Zardari’s candidature if the judges were not reinstated.

Mr Sharif has called a meeting of the PML-N’s central working and executive committees in Islamabad on Monday afternoon to discuss the party’s future course of action.

“It is not too difficult to move a motion for reinstatement of the judges in parliament, debate it and carry it the same day. If you don’t want to do it in 10 minutes, take a few hours and issue executive orders after the passage of the resolution in parliament, restoring the judges in the evening. We have given the PPP a roadmap and are waiting for their response,” he said.

“According to the Islamabad accord between us and the PPP, the judges should have been reinstated in 24 hours after the resignation or impeachment of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf. But it is unfortunate that this did not happen.”

In reply to a question, he said it were the people who had forced Gen (retd) Musharraf to quit. “I’m not a wheeler-dealer and I’m not aware of any other force that has played a role in the resignation of Musharraf. If we hadn’t stood steadfast to our principles and if we had stopped putting pressure on him, the general wouldn’t have agreed to resign.”

In a veiled response to a question, Mr Sharif also expressed his unwillingness to support Mr Zardari for the presidency. “We have told the PPP leaders to abide by the agreements, especially the Islamabad accord that clearly states that the PPP will get its man elected as next president if the 17th Amendment is scrapped.

“If the controversial amendment stays, a non-partisan person enjoying respect and confidence of all the four coalition partners will be elected to the office of the president,” Mr Sharif said.

Mr Sharif said neither he nor his party feared the PPP or Mr Zardari in the presidency. “I have a great deal of respect for Mr Zardari. But here we are talking of a principle. The powers to dissolve the assemblies should rest with the prime minister, and not with the president.”

Dawn : Pakistani coalition wrangles over president, judges

Pakistani coalition wrangles over president, judges

August 24, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Pakistan's two major ruling coalition parties – the PPP and PML-N -- wrangled over the presidency and deposed judges on Sunday.

The PPP announced Saturday the widower of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, would be its candidate in the presidential election set for Sept. 6.

This further annoyed another PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who has been pressing for reinstatement of judges purged by Pervez Musharraf late last year.

“If they're taking steps unilaterally then what we can do? It looks like the People's Party wants to break ties with us,” Sharif's party spokesman, Ahsan Iqbal, said on Sunday.

Sharif wants the post of president stripped of strong powers, in particular to dismiss parliament.

But a senior PPP official has made it clear that would only be dealt with after the presidential election.

Iqbal said his party's leadership would meet on Monday to decide on a plan of action after the move by the PPP.

NYT : Sharif Threatens to Pull Out of Pakistani Coalition

Sharif Threatens to Pull Out of Pakistani Coalition

By JANE PERLEZ | August 19, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A day after their unified effort ousted President Pervez Musharraf, the two major parties in the governing coalition fell into disarray on Tuesday when they failed to agree on the restoration of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The instant deterioration in relations became evident when Nawaz Sharif, the leader of one of the parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, walked out of a meeting here and headed back to his home in Lahore, a four-hour drive away.

Party members said Mr. Sharif had delivered an ultimatum to the senior coalition party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Asif Ali Zardari, to consent to the return of the chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, within 72 hours, or the Mr. Sharif’s party would leave the government. Mr. Chaudhry was among some 60 judges suspended by Mr. Musharraf last year.

Even by the standards of Pakistan’s hard-boiled and volatile political scene, the public discord between the political leaders was surprising, politicians said, a sign that opposition to Mr. Musharraf may have been the strongest thread tying them together.

The departure of Mr. Sharif’s party would greatly weaken the government but would not necessarily mean there would be new elections. Still, the situation did not bode well for future stability, with Pakistan facing a sharply declining economy and an emboldened Taliban insurgency that is fast moving past its sanctuaries in the tribal region and reaching into other parts of the country.

In an attack claimed by the Taliban within the tribal region on Tuesday, a suicide bomber ripped into the emergency room of the district hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, a town near Waziristan, killing 25 people and injuring 30, said the inspector general of the police in the North-West Frontier Province, Malik Naveed Khan. He said there was some evidence that the suicide bomber was linked to Waziristan, the base of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud.

The rupture in the coalition appeared serious, perhaps fatal, said Arif Nizami, the editor of the daily newspaper, The Nation, and friend of the Mr. Sharif’s family.

Mr. Sharif was “unlikely to cave,” Mr. Nizami said.

Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif have sharply disagreed over Mr. Chaudhry’s reinstatement ever since they became coalition partners.

Mr. Sharif based his election campaign earlier this year on the reinstatement of some 60 judges fired by Mr. Musharraf, including the independently minded Mr. Chaudhry. A poll in June by the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based group, showed that 83 percent of Pakistanis wanted the Supreme Court justices reinstated.

But Mr. Zardari has made it clear that he does not want Mr. Chaudhry back on the bench. He prefers the chief justice installed by Mr. Musharraf after he imposed emergency rule last November, Abdul Hamid Dogar, according to lawyers familiar with Mr. Zardari’s thinking.

The lawyers’ movement that has grew around Mr. Chaudhry as the ultimate anti-Musharraf symbol in Pakistan regards Mr. Dogar as an illegal appointee.

Mr. Dogar comes from Sindh Province, Mr. Zardari’s political base, and the two men are friendly.

The basis of Mr. Zardari’s opposition to Mr. Chaudhry rests with a fear that he might undo an amnesty agreement that absolved Mr. Zardari of corruption charges, lawyers said. The amnesty, which applies to bureaucrats and politicians who faced corruption charges, was part of a package arranged by Mr. Musharraf when Mr. Zardari returned to Pakistan after his wife, the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated late last year.

Members of the Pakistan Muslim League-N said Mr. Zardari, in failing to agree to the reinstatement of Mr. Chaudhry, was breaking a written accord made with Mr. Sharif 10 days ago.

The attack in Dera Ismail Khan as part of continuing sectarian strife between Sunni and Shiites, according to Mr. Khan, the police chief. A Shiite man was killed in the town Tuesday, and as a group of Shiites approached the gates of the emergency room with the body of the dead man, the suicide bomber blew himself up, he said.

Many of the 23 dead were Shiites, Mr. Khan said. Two police officers were also killed, he said.

In another unexpected move after Mr. Musharraf’s resignation, the chief of staff of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, made a surprise visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday.

The spokesman for the Afghan military, Gen. Zaher Azimi, said General Kayani attended a meeting of the tripartite commission, a body composed of the military leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States coalition and NATO forces in Afghanistan. General Kayani’s presence was notable, not only because of its timing so quickly after Mr. Musharraf’s departure, but because it was believed to be the first time the Pakistani general had attended a meeting of the commission in Kabul since assuming command of the Pakistani military last November.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been particularly tense in the last few months after the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, repeatedly accused Pakistan of helping Taliban fighters cross the border into Afghanistan in order to attack Afghan and NATO troops. The Bush administration has also publicly reprimanded the Pakistanis for their support of the Taliban.

Last month, American officials confronted General Kayani with evidence they said showed that Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, had planned the suicide bomb attack against the Indian Embassy in Kabul in early July. General Kayani is the former head of the agency.

There was speculation that General Kayani may have attended the talks in Kabul in response to the stepped American pressure.

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Mark Mazzetti from Washington, and David E. Sanger from Vermont.

NYT : In Musharraf’s Wake, U.S. Faces Political Disarray

In Musharraf’s Wake, U.S. Faces Political Disarray

By JANE PERLEZ | August 19, 2008August 19, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Facing imminent impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday, after months of belated recognition by American officials that he had become a waning asset in the campaign against terrorism.

The decision removes from Pakistan’s political stage the leader who for nearly nine years served as one of the United States’ most important — and ultimately unreliable — allies. And it now leaves American officials to deal with a new, elected coalition that has so far proved itself to be unwilling or unable to confront an expanding Taliban insurgency determined to topple the government.

“Whether I win or lose the impeachment, the nation will lose,” Mr. Musharraf said, explaining his decision in an emotional televised speech lasting more than an hour. He will stay in Pakistan and will not be put on trial, government officials said.

The question of who will succeed Mr. Musharraf is certain to unleash intense wrangling between the rival political parties that form the governing coalition and to add a new layer of turbulence to an already unstable nuclear-armed nation of 165 million people.

“We’ve said for years that Musharraf is our best bet, and my fear is that we are about to discover how true that was,” one senior Bush administration official said, acknowledging that the United States had stuck with Mr. Musharraf for too long and developed few other relationships in Pakistan to fall back on.

Administration officials will now have to find allies within the fractious civilian government, which has so far shown scant interest in taking on militants from the Taliban and Al Qaeda who have roosted in Pakistan’s badlands along the border with Afghanistan.

At the same time, suspicions between the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies and their militaries are deepening, and relations between the countries are at their lowest point since Mr. Musharraf pledged to ally Pakistan with the United States after the 9/11 attacks.

Among the greatest concerns, senior American officials say, is the durability of new controls over Pakistan’s nuclear program. Though Pakistan has been through far more abrupt political transitions than this one — through assassinations, a mysterious plane crash and coups — this is the first since it amassed a large nuclear arsenal.

Another central concern is the war in Afghanistan, which has been fueled by Taliban and Qaeda fighters who have used Pakistan as a rear base to carry out increasingly lethal and sophisticated attacks across the border.

After years in which Mr. Musharraf proved unable or unwilling to rein in militants in Pakistan, American officials say they are now more skeptical than ever that they can count on cooperation from Pakistan’s military leaders, even including Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a former head of Pakistan’s spy agency, who replaced Mr. Musharraf as military chief last November.

The coalition government had “no comprehension” of the insurgency, said a former interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, whose parliamentary constituency adjoins the tribal areas. “They have one policy for domestic consumption: ‘Have peace, don’t use the army,’ ” he said. “Then for the foreigners they say, ‘We will fight.’ ”

A main challenge for Washington now will be to fix the attention of the two leaders of the coalition parties, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, on the raging Taliban insurgency that not only threatens American soldiers in Afghanistan but also threatens to destabilize Pakistan itself.

The campaign against the militants is unpopular here in Pakistan because it is seen as an American conflict foisted on the country. Washington would like the new government to explain to the public that the effort to quell the Taliban is in Pakistan’s interests as well.

So far, the coalition, distracted by internal machinations, has failed to make that case, even as the military has taken on the insurgents with new vigor in the last 10 days. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought on Monday to emphasize continuity with the new leaders of Pakistan, saying the United States would keep pressing the Pakistani government to battle extremism within its borders.

President Bush, at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., made no statement about Mr. Musharraf’s resignation. A White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said, “President Bush appreciates President Musharraf’s efforts in the democratic transition of Pakistan as well as his commitment to fighting Al Qaeda and extremist groups.”

The muted reaction from American officials was partly a result of the Bush administration’s having come to terms months ago with the expectation that it would have to pursue its strategy in Pakistan without Mr. Musharraf.

Mr. Musharraf’s political demise was nearly inevitable after he shed his military role last year and since his party was soundly defeated in parliamentary elections in February.

Since then, the White House has been grappling with a new political reality, where the civilian leaders seem to have tenuous control over Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment.

Some inside the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon believe that Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency has used the democratic transition in Islamabad to strengthen its ties to militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas who are carrying out operations into Afghanistan.

Uncertainty over who is actually in charge in Pakistan has heightened concerns over the country’s nuclear arsenal, which is today variously estimated at 50 to 100 weapons.

While American officials say publicly that they are confident it is secure, in private they have long harbored worries about what would happen when Mr. Musharraf no longer stood atop the country’s nuclear command structure, which has always been a creation of Mr. Musharraf himself. How robust it will prove without him, they say, is a worrisome unknown.

Perhaps the greatest concern is what one senior Bush administration official recently termed “steadfast efforts” by the extremist groups to infiltrate Pakistan’s nuclear laboratories, the heart of a vast infrastructure that employs tens of thousands of people. Some of the efforts, officials said, are believed to have involved Pakistani scientists trained abroad.

Pakistan’s weapons themselves are considered less of a concern — thanks in part to a secret program initiated by the Bush administration, with Mr. Musharraf’s consent, to help train Pakistani security forces to keep the weapons safe.

But American officials say they do not know the details of how much money was spent, and they have been barred from reviewing crucial aspects of the security procedures.

In announcing his resignation, from his presidential office here in Islamabad at 1 p.m., Mr. Musharraf said that he was putting national interest above “personal bravado,” adding that he was not prepared to put the office of the presidency through the impeachment process.

Mr. Musharraf said the governing coalition, which was pushing for impeachment, had tried to “turn lies into truths,” and finished his speech by raising his clenched fists chest high and declaring, “Long live Pakistan!”

Mr. Musharraf decided to resign after the coalition mounted a campaign over 10 days to impeach him and said it would file charges based on gross violations of the Constitution. For the new government, elected with a big majority in February, his departure represented a vindication of democracy in a country that has been ruled for more than half its 61-year existence by the military.

By 5 p.m., Mr. Musharraf had been granted a ceremonial departure composed of a military guard of honor, and he left the presidential building for the last time. He headed to an army house in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Islamabad, where he has lived as president.

He will stay there for the next few days before moving elsewhere in Islamabad, perhaps to a house he is building in an exclusive enclave on the outskirts of the city.

The chairman of the Senate, Muhammad Mian Soomro, who had served as caretaker prime minister this year, was named acting president. He will keep the office until a new president is chosen by Parliament and four provincial assemblies within 30 days.

Mr. Zardari, the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and now the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which she led before her assassination, is known to want the job. But he remains something of a controversial figure, having faced multiple counts of corruption in the past, though he was never convicted and says the charges were politically motivated. They were dropped when Mr. Zardari returned to Pakistan this year.

A senior American official who deals with Pakistan said last week that the notion of Mr. Zardari as president was not appealing, but neither were the alternatives.

One of the other candidates mentioned is Aftab Shahban Mirani, a former defense minister and a longtime stalwart of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Whoever emerges, the talks are likely to be long and contentious. Mr. Sharif, who has a past checkered by corruption allegations, maintains a barely civil relationship with Mr. Zardari, and is said to be strongly opposed to the elevation of Mr. Zardari.

A colleague of Mr. Sharif’s said the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the party Mr. Sharif leads, might agree to Mr. Zardari in the post if it was stripped of its current powers, including the power to dissolve Parliament and to choose the army chief.

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Mark Mazzetti from Washington, and David E. Sanger from Vermont.

Dawn : CHRONOLOGY-Months of turmoil for Pakistan's Musharraf

CHRONOLOGY-Months of turmoil for Pakistan's Musharraf

Islamabad, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday in the face of an impending impeachment motion by Pakistan's ruling coalition government. The former army chief and firm U.S. ally had seen his popularity slide over the past 18 months and had been isolated since his parliamentary allies lost a February general election. Here is a chronology of recent events that led to the downfall of Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in December 1999 and became president in 2001.

March 9, 2007 - Musharraf suspends Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry over allegations of misconduct. Lawyers rally around the top judge and Musharraf's popularity plummets.

July 10 - Musharraf orders troops to storm the Red Mosque in Islamabad to crush a Taliban-style movement there. At least 105 people are killed. Militant attacks and suicide bombings follow.

July 20 - Supreme Court reinstates Chief Justice Chaudhry, dealing a blow to Musharraf's authority.

July 27 - Musharraf meets former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi for inconclusive talks on how to move the country towards a civilian-led democracy. Bhutto demands Musharraf step down as army chief.

Sept 10 - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is arrested at Islamabad airport on his arrival from exile, despite the Supreme Court clearing his return. He is deported to Saudi Arabia.

Oct 2 - Musharraf's government announces it will drop graft charges against Bhutto, clearing the way for her return.

Oct 6 - Musharraf wins a presidential vote by legislators.

Supreme Court holds off confirming legality of vote.

Oct 19 - Suicide bomber tries to assassinate Bhutto in Karachi as she returns from eight years of exile.

Nov 2 - Supreme Court meets to decide if Musharraf was eligible to stand for re-election while still army chief.

Nov 3 - Musharraf imposes emergency rule, detaining thousands of opposition politicians and lawyers.

Nov 11 - Musharraf says parliamentary elections will be held by Jan. 8.

Nov 13 - Bhutto is placed under house arrest for a week in Lahore, hours before planned march against emergency rule.

Bhutto says Musharraf must quit as president.

Nov 15 - Musharraf appoints Senate chairman Mohammadmian Soomro to head a caretaker line-up to oversee elections.

Nov 22 - Commonwealth suspends Pakistan.

Nov 25 - Sharif returns from exile.

Nov 28 - Tearful Musharraf hands command of the army to General Ashfaq Kayani.

Nov 29 - Musharraf is sworn in as civilian leader.

Dec 15 - Musharraf lifts state of emergency, restores constitution.

Dec 27 - Bhutto is assassinated in a gun and bomb attack.

Jan 2 - Election delayed from Jan 8 to Feb 18 because of disturbances after Bhutto's assassination.

Feb 18 - Resounding election victory for parties led by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari (Pakistan People's Party) and Sharif (Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)). Analysts say Musharraf may be driven out.

March 9 - Sharif says he will join Zardari to form a coalition hostile to Musharraf.

Aug 7 - Ruling coalition says it will launch proceedings to impeach Musharraf.

Aug 16 - Pakistan's ruling coalition prepares impeachment charges against Musharraf focusing on violation of the constitution and misconduct.

Aug 18 - Musharraf announces resignation.

Dawn : Implications of Musharraf's resignation

Implications of Musharraf's resignation

ISLAMABAD, Aug 18 (Reuters): The following are some of the political, economic and diplomatic implications of his expected resignation.

INTERNAL POLITICS

* Opposition to Musharraf has bonded rival parties in the coalition government. His departure could see them drift apart.

* The Pakistan People's Party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto leads the coalition, with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) its main partner. The two main civilian parties are old rivals and despite recent cooperation, will compete in the next election.

SECURITY

* The coalition government has vowed full commitment to the campaign against violent militancy. Despite questions over its policy of trying to negotiate with militants, recent operations in the northwest should have reassured Washington and other allies the government will match Musharraf's security efforts.

* The military plays a dominant role in security policy, and its cooperation with the new government has been smooth.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

* The United States, apparently resigned to Musharraf's exit, says Pakistan's leadership is a Pakistani matter. Ties between the new government and Washington are good and should remain so as long as the latter is satisfied the government is doing enough to stop militancy, in particular attacks into Afghanistan.

* The new government is committed to the peace process with India launched under Musharraf in 2004.

ECONOMY

* The government has vowed to turn its attention to economic problems after Musharraf leaves. Inflation is at its highest in years, and trade and fiscal deficits are widening.

High oil prices have depleted foreign reserves while the rupee has lost about a quarter of its value this year. An end to the uncertainty over Musharraf should ease investor worry. Stocks rose 4 percent on Monday as investors cheered his departure as a milestone toward easing tension.

THE NEXT PRESIDENT

* Who becomes next president could depend on the powers the position retains. Musharraf had authority to dismiss parliament and make top military and judicial appointments. Coalition partners vow to strip the presidency of those powers and make it a largely ceremonial post. However, analysts say Asif Ali Zardari might want the job, in which case he will want to keep the powers. Zardari has also suggested the next president might be a woman. Newspapers have speculated an ethnic Pashtun leader, Asfandayr Wali Khan, whose liberal party is part of the coalition, might get the job. The president is elected by the four provincial assemblies and the national parliament.

PTI : Musharraf to address nation, to make "important announcements"

Musharraf to address nation, to make "important announcements"

Press Trust of India | August 18, 2008

Islamabad, Aug 18 (PTI) Amid intense speculation that President Pervez Musharraf would step down before Pakistan's ruling coalition begins impeachment proceedings against him, the beleaguered ex-military ruler will address the nation this afternoon.

Musharraf, who held consultations with his legal and political advisors this morning, will address the nation at 1 pm, presidential spokesman Maj Gen (retired) Rashid Qureshi said. Other sources said Musharraf is expected to make "some important announcements" during his speech.

Reports for the past few days, have suggested that the increasingly isolated Musharraf will step down before the PPP-led coalition launches the impeachment process against him in the parliament this week.

The coalition has finalised its draft impeachment motion and a chargesheet against Musharraf and documents are being vetted by the top leaders of the ruling alliance.

Several top leaders of the coalition, including PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, had asked Musharraf to quit or face impeachment.

However, presidential spokesman Qureshi had insisted that Musharraf would not quit. Musharraf's aides have held talks with the government over the past few days on giving him indemnity and safe passage in the event of his resignation.

Foreign interlocutors, including British diplomat Mark Lyall Grant and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz, have visited Islamabad and held talks with Musharraf and the ruling coalition to find a way out of the political impasse.

It is still not clear whether Musharraf intends to remain in Pakistan after his possible resignation. Sources said while the PPP is amenable to him leaving the country following his resignation, the PML-N and its chief Nawaz Sharif are opposed to the idea.

NYT : Sharif’s Party Leaves Cabinet in Pakistan

Sharif’s Party Leaves Cabinet in Pakistan

By JANE PERLEZ | May 13, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In an early sign of instability in the new government in Pakistan, the junior partner in the coalition said Monday that it was withdrawing from the cabinet over the failure to reinstate the Supreme Court judges dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf.

The move by the Pakistan Muslim League-N to vacate its nine posts in the 24-member cabinet, including the all important finance ministry, was a step short of leaving the coalition and the collapse of the government altogether. But it was a clear indication of just how fragile the coalition remained.

The leader of the party, Nawaz Sharif, said he was standing firm on a pledge made by the coalition in March to bring back 57 judges, including the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohamed Chaudhry, after their dismissal under emergency rule last November.

In protracted negotiations that collapsed Sunday, the senior member of the coalition, the Pakistan Peoples Party led by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, insisted that judges appointed during the emergency by President Musharraf as loyalists to him should also be retained.

“Complications kept on being created,” Mr. Sharif told the news conference. “We made a promise to the nation, we couldn’t fulfill it, so we are quitting the cabinet.”

Mr. Sharif said the party would not join the opposition, and would continue to work with its partner on an issue by issue basis. But how long the marriage of the two parties could last was a matter of high conjecture Monday. “Several months,” said Ashtar Ausaf Ali, a senior legal adviser to Mr. Sharif.

One of Mr. Sharif’s confidants, Nisar Ali Khan, who is among the ministers who will withdraw from the cabinet, described relations between the two parties as “cool.”

Explaining his decision, Mr. Sharif said he refused to recognize the judges appointed by Mr. Musharraf — and who now sit on the Supreme Court — because he considered their appointments during the emergency rule illegal.

Mr. Sharif said he would immediately file nominating papers to stand for parliament in a by-election in June. From parliament Mr. Sharif, who was twice prime minister in the 1990s, would have the potential to become a much stronger voice in the escalating contest with Mr. Zardari, who has declared he will stay out of the legislature.

In a statement after Mr. Sharif’s news conference, the Pakistan Peoples Party said it had “no differences” with its coalition partner over the restoration of the judiciary. “The only point of disagreement is the method of restoration,” said Sherry Rehman, Central Information Secretary of the party.

Ms. Rehman said the Peoples’ Party would still try to resolve the issue “amicably” and that the cabinet posts left open by the Pakistan Muslim League-N would not be filled.

The essence of the feud over the judges revolved around the future of Mr. Musharraf, regarded by the Bush administration as a strong ally in the campaign on terror. Mr. Musharraf is no longer head of the army but remains as president.

If Mr. Chaudhry was reinstated, the Supreme Court would almost certainly rule the Nov. 3 emergency decree illegal. That in turn would re-open the legality of the second five-year presidential term granted to Mr. Musharraf by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, who replaced Mr. Chaudhry, and who is regarded in the Pakistani legal fraternity as being friendly toward Mr. Zardari.

During his election campaign, Mr. Sharif stressed the importance of restoring the chief justice, Mr. Chaudhry, a maverick judge whose rulings infuriated Mr. Musharraf. The Supreme Court was considering the legality of Mr. Musharraf’s second five-year term as president and seemed poised to rule against him, when the president abruptly dismissed the judges in November.

Mr. Chaudhry, a country lawyer from the remote province of Baluchistan, upset the Musharraf regime, and the United States, by demanding that the secret services and police explain the whereabouts of hundreds of Pakistanis missing in secret detentions.

Mr. Ali, the legal adviser to Mr. Sharif, said that the breakdown over the judges came in part because the Bush administration was concerned that Mr. Musharraf be protected, for the time being at least, and not be made vulnerable to rulings by Mr. Chaudhry.

Mr. Ali said there was a perception that that Mr. Zardari had given an understanding to the Bush administration that Mr. Musharraf be granted a “safe exit,” six to nine months from now, a period which coincides with the end of Mr. Bush’s term. “It’s the perception that the Americans fear if the judiciary is restored, Musharraf will lose face,” Mr. Ali said.

The Pakistani papers have featured editorials and articles asserting that the United States was meddling in the coalition crisis.

“Any ambassador would make a courtesy call to Asif Zardari,” said Athar Minallah, a leader of the lawyers’ movement that has campaigned on behalf of the fired judges. “The American ambassador has made up to a dozen, including one the day after the coalition announced on March 9 they would restore the judges within 30 days.”

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Richard Boucher, visited London at the weekend to talk to Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari who were holding last-ditch negotiations there on the judges. The American embassy in Islamabad issued a statement afterwards saying that Mr. Boucher’s visit was part of his “regular interactions” with Pakistan’s political leaders.

In question now, is the future of the lawyers’ movement that made Mr. Chaudhry a popular public figure last year by campaigning for him at huge rallies around the country.

But the public, suddenly burdened with an economic crisis of wheat shortages, and high energy prices, is starting to express disenchantment with the new government for concentrating on the judges at the expense of basic bread and butter issues.

The leader of the lawyers’ movement, Aitzaz Ahsan, declared at a protest march at the parliament Monday that “we’re continuing the fight until all the judges are back.”

But there are doubts about how much excitement he will be able to stir, especially since he plans to run for a parliamentary seat on Mr. Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party ticket, a party that is now seen as opposed to reinstating Mr. Chaudhry and his fellow judges in the way that was anticipated.

IHT : Musharraf may accept restoration of judges if done by amending constitution

Musharraf may accept restoration of judges if done by amending constitution

The Associated Press | May 3, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf may accept the reinstatement of judges he sacked if the country's new government amends the constitution instead of simply passing a parliamentary resolution, a spokesman for his political party said Saturday.

Musharraf purged the judiciary of some 60 judges — including Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry — when he imposed a state of emergency in November to avoid any legal challenges to his re-election as president.

But the action angered many Pakistanis, who rejected Musharraf's allies in the Feb. 18 elections, paving the way for the formation of a coalition government, which on Friday set May 12 as the date to restore judges. The government's decision further threatened the U.S.-backed president's already diminished grip on power.

Although the presidency has avoided comment on the latest move, Tariq Azim, the spokesman for Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, said the president "may accept the restoration of judges if the government amends the constitution."

However, Azim insisted that the judges could not be sent back to courts by the parliament's simply approving a resolution. He provided no further details, and said the president was still consulting experts.

His comments came a day after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — whose party is a main partner in the coalition government — told reporters that the ruling party chief, Asif Ali Zardari, had agreed to restore the judges.

Restoring the judges has been a top priority for the two main parties in Pakistan's month-old government, but disputes over how to bring the judges back has threatened to break up the ruling coalition.

After marathon talks in Dubai this week, coalition officials finally came to a deal.

"I want to inform the entire nation that on Monday May 12 all the sacked judges will be restored," Nawaz Sharif, head of the second-biggest party in the coalition, said at a Friday news conference in Lahore.

Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for Zardari's Pakistan People's Party, the largest party in the coalition, confirmed the plan.

Bringing the justices back bodes ill for the unpopular president, who seized power from Sharif in a 1999 military coup.

The judges could revisit Musharraf's disputed re-election.

Even if they don't, some argue the humiliation of the judges returning would prompt Musharraf to resign.

Musharraf would have to be "absolutely shameless" to continue as president if the judges came back, said Khawaja Asif, a key Sharif aide. He said Musharraf also risks impeachment.

Zardari, who has been leading the party of his wife Benazir Bhutto since she was assassinated on Dec. 27, told Pakistani Aaj news channel late Friday that he was maintaining a distance from Musharraf.

"We are trying to be at distance from him (Musharraf)," he said, adding "we want to establish political institutions, strengthen the parliament" and "how can I accept a president who is beyond the parliament?"

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad, Nahal Toosi, Stephen Graham and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report.

WaPo : Deal Struck on Pakistan Judges

Deal Struck on Pakistan Judges

Ruling Coalition Agrees to Reinstate Chief Justice, 60 Others

By Candace Rondeaux | Washington Post Foreign Service | May 3, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 2 -- The coalition government of Pakistan has agreed to reinstate the country's chief justice and 60 other judges deposed last year under a controversial order by President Pervez Musharraf, a move that could threaten Musharraf's tenuous grip on political power.

"I want to inform the entire nation that on Monday, May 12, 2008, all deposed judges will be restored," former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, said Friday during a televised news conference from Lahore.

The announcement came after two days of round-the-clock negotiations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that at times exposed the shaky foundation of the political alliance between this country's ruling factions, Sharif's party and the Pakistan People's Party.

Sharif had been a fierce advocate of reinstating the judges without conditions as soon as possible. The co-chair of the Pakistan People's Party, Asif Ali Zardari, who was until very recently Sharif's bitter political foe, had pushed for constitutional changes that would spell out the role of the judiciary more clearly but also strip the president of several powers, including the authority to dissolve Parliament.

On Friday, Sharif said Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and the other deposed judges will be restored to the bench through a parliamentary resolution in 10 days. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani will then sign an executive order completing the arrangement.

Musharraf did not speak out on the judges Friday, and it was unclear how he might respond to an attempt to restore them to the bench. Sharif shared few details of the proposed resolution but said that the day Musharraf removed the judges was "one of the darkest days in Pakistan's history." He also said he had agreed with Zardari's request to allow the current judges to remain on the job, which will expand the number of Supreme Court judges to more than 20. Zardari offered no public comment on the judges Friday.

A senior Pakistani government official familiar with the negotiations said the compromise agreement between Sharif and Zardari also calls for setting a five-year limit on judges' tenure, a move that would effectively cut short the chief justice's term by three years. It was unclear why either side would seek term limits.

Talks over the restoration of the judges stalled this week after the coalition missed an April 30 deadline to announce a resolution on the issue. Yet members of both parties said Friday that they remain united in support of restoring Pakistan's judiciary.

"The coalition government is far more important than a single issue," said Farah Ispahani, a member of Parliament and spokeswoman for the Pakistan People's Party. "We always were in agreement that the justices should be restored. We just had a difference of opinion with Mr. Sharif and his party on how it should be done."

The chief justice has been critical of Musharraf and has been especially vocal about the disappearances of hundreds of Pakistanis since the country joined U.S. counterterrorism efforts in 2001. Chaudhry waged an aggressive campaign to force Pakistan's intelligence agencies to disclose the whereabouts of missing terrorism suspects and political prisoners.

Musharraf fired Chaudhry in March of last year, but in July the Supreme Court reinstated the chief justice. Four months later, Musharraf fired Chaudhry again and placed him under house arrest after declaring emergency rule. Chaudhry's removal was seen by many as a preemptive strike by Musharraf to head off any legal challenges to his presidency. The power struggle between the two men ignited an unprecedented furor across the country that resulted in widespread protests by lawyers and a wave of violence.

Public anger over the state of Pakistan's tattered judiciary in part led to the ouster of Musharraf's party from power in February elections. Gillani, the newly elected prime minister, then ordered Chaudhry's release from house arrest and freed five other judges.

Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi, Musharraf's top spokesman, said in an interview Friday that the proposed parliamentary resolution will not be sufficient for full restoration of the judges. He said the president's legal advisers and Pakistan's attorney general have determined that a constitutional amendment would be needed to return the judges to the bench. Such an amendment would require a two-thirds majority vote of the National Assembly and Senate combined. Securing that support would be difficult, given that Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q faction holds a majority in the Senate.

Sen. Tariq Azim Khan, chief spokesman for Musharraf's faction, said that his party is prepared to support the judges' reinstatement but that the parliamentary resolution, if passed, would not be "legally binding."

The judicial process "has been so bogged down it cannot be changed by a simple parliamentary resolution," he said. "By just putting back a few judges, it will not solve the problem or cure the rot that has set into the judicial system."

WaPo : Pakistan Is at an Impasse Over Reinstating Judges

Pakistan Is at an Impasse Over Reinstating Judges

By Candace Rondeaux | Washington Post Foreign Service | April 27, 2008

ISLAMABAD, April 26 -- After weeks of deliberation, Pakistan's newly formed coalition government appears to have reached an impasse over its month-old promise to reinstate dozens of judges fired last year by President Pervez Musharraf.

Restoration of the judiciary has been a key issue since November, when Musharraf dismissed about 60 judges and placed several prominent judges and lawyers under house arrest to head off potential legal challenges to his rule. The move prompted protests across the country, and the judges' reinstatement became a rallying cry of the two leading opposition parties, which were swept into power in February parliamentary elections.

Shortly after the vote, the leaders of the two parties vowed to return the judges to the bench in a public declaration viewed by many here as a direct challenge to Musharraf. Known as the Murree Declaration, the agreement called for Parliament to pass a resolution reinstating all the judges within 30 days of the new government's swearing-in.

But the coalition government suspended its first parliamentary session Friday. With an April 30 deadline looming for a decision on the judges, Parliament will have to reconvene for a special session while debate on the issue continues between the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N faction, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People's Party.

The National Assembly is widely expected to call for an extension of its session to resolve the judiciary dispute this week.

Despite differences over how to go about reinstating the judges, Sharif and Zardari remained publicly optimistic that a decision was imminent.

"There is a consensus on the restoration of the judges," Sharif told reporters Saturday in Islamabad, the capital. "As per the agreement of the Murree Declaration, I think it will be possible."

At issue are the fine points of a package of constitutional changes that would not only strip the president of several powers, including the authority to dissolve Parliament, but also reinstate Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. The justice, a fierce critic of the Musharraf military government, was suspended in March 2007 but reinstated by the Supreme Court in July. He was fired and placed under house arrest on Nov. 3 after Musharraf declared emergency rule. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani released Chaudhry from house arrest the day he took office in March.

Chaudhry's term is set to end in 2013, but Parliament is debating whether the resolution on the judges should shorten the terms of high court justices, which could effectively lead to an earlier retirement.

Chaudhry's ouster sparked a constitutional crisis that transformed the chief justice into a folk hero and thrust the political parties that supported his reinstatement into the center of power. The conflict over the judges provoked strong responses from thousands of lawyers, who have repeatedly clashed with police during protests across Pakistan in the past year.

"Out there, people are very emotional about this issue, and if they think they can get away with not reinstating the chief justice, they are mistaken," said Athar Minallah, a leading activist in the lawyers' movement in Islamabad. "It would be very difficult for them to go against that will. If they want to eliminate Iftikhar Chaudhry, that would be a disaster for them. There are other judges, but people believe that this issue is related to him. They don't even know the names of the other judges."

Governments around the world have called for Chaudhry's reinstatement. But the White House, a longtime supporter of Musharraf, has demurred, saying that restoration of the judiciary is an "internal matter" that must be decided by Pakistan's government. That stance has prompted strong criticism from many in Pakistan, including Chaudhry's attorney and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan.

"The Americans want Chaudhry out despite the fact that Pervez Musharraf is the most hated man in Pakistan and Chaudhry is arguably the most popular man in Pakistan," Ahsan said in an interview Saturday. "American policy is still one-man specific. Unfortunately, they maintain only one number in Pakistan, and unfortunately they have the wrong number."

IHT : Pakistani Parliament opens with a power shift

Pakistani Parliament opens with a power shift

Reuters, The Associated Press | March 17, 2008

ISLAMABAD: The new National Assembly was sworn in Monday in Pakistan, setting the scene for a showdown with President Pervez Musharraf a month after his opponents swept a general election.

Musharraf's allies were routed in the Feb. 18 vote, and he is faced with the prospect of inviting the victors, led by the Pakistan People's Party, to form a coalition that could drive him from power.

Pakistan's Western allies and neighboring countries fear that a confrontation between the president and a new government could herald more upheavals in a nuclear-armed state already reeling from a wave of militant bombings.

Security was tight outside Parliament, with police officers and paramilitary soldiers guarding the complex and restricting traffic on the avenue outside.

In a sign of looming conflict with the isolated president, a Pakistan People's Party member said that members were taking their oaths under an old, democratic Constitution, not the amended version that came into force after Musharraf imposed emergency rule in November.

A member of the Pakistan People's Party's main coalition partner, the party led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, denounced Musharraf's 1999 coup, in which Sharif was ousted.

The February election saw the Pakistan People's Party emerging with the most seats in the 342-member National Assembly but not enough to rule alone. Sharif's party came in second, dealing a crushing defeat to the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower and political successor, signed an agreement this month to form a coalition with a small regional party from the country's northwest.

Neither Zardari nor Sharif ran in the election, but both were in Parliament to watch the proceedings together from the visitors' gallery. Musharraf stayed away from the session, which marked the end of his eight-year domination of Pakistani politics.

"It's the first step for democracy," Zardari said. "We have sent this message to the world that democracy should be helped, and democracy is the last day of dictatorship."

The two main coalition party leaders have vowed to reinstate judges the president dismissed when he imposed emergency rule beginning in November.

If reinstated, the judges are expected to reopen legal challenges to Musharraf's re-election as president by legislators in October, while he was still army chief. Musharraf's opponents say that his re-election was unconstitutional.

The Pakistan People's Party has said its top priority will be to seek a United Nations investigation of the Dec. 27 gun-and-suicide-bomb attack that killed Bhutto, a former prime minister and the highest-profile victim of the recent wave of violence.

To reassert the primacy of Parliament, the coalition aims to amend the Constitution to strip Musharraf of his power to dissolve the assemblies and to dismiss the prime minister.

Musharraf's allies were routed in the elections partly because many Pakistanis blame the president's friendship with the United States for fueling violence at home.

An attack in Islamabad on Saturday was the first in Pakistan's quiet capital in several months and the first targeting foreigners here in more than a year. A Turkish woman was killed, and the 11 wounded included 5 U.S. citizens, among them FBI workers.

On Sunday, at least nine militants were killed by missiles fired by U.S. aircraft in the South Waziristan tribal region, a haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters on the Afghan border.

Shortly after being sworn in, the assembly said prayers for Benazir Bhutto, who led the Pakistan People's Party until her assassination. The party has yet to decide on its candidate for the post of prime minister.