Deal Reached To Restore Deposed Judges in Pakistan
By VOA News
01 May 2008
Leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition have reached a deal to reinstate judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf under a state of emergency.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says the restoration will take place through a parliamentary resolution, with more details on the deal to be made public on Friday.
Mr. Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, told reporters Friday that talks with Pakistan People's Party leader, Asif Ali Zardari, yielded positive results. Coalition leaders have spent the last two days in Dubai trying to work out differences on how to restore the judiciary.
Mr. Sharif had threatened to pull out of the coalition if an agreement was not reached.
Zardari has insisted on linking the judges' reinstatement to constitutional reforms -- among them, narrowing the powers of top judges. Mr. Sharif, however, has called for the judiciary to be restored unconditionally to what it was prior to last year's six week state of emergency.
Last November, President Musharraf dismissed roughly 60 of Pakistan's high court judges.
But Mr. Musharraf's former ruling Pakistan Muslim League party came in a distant third in February's parliamentary elections, and the new coalition government vowed to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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