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Last Updated: Apr 15th, 2008 - 18:29:11 |
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's ruling coalition renewed their pledge on Tuesday to restore the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf who could reopen legal challenges to his rule.
The reaffirmation came at a meeting between Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her political successor, Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister overthrown by Musharraf in 1999, and other coalition leaders.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of reports that strains have appeared in the two-week-old coalition over the reinstatement of the judges.
Musharraf fired around 60 judges, including Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, after imposing emergency rule in November to preempt a ruling against his re-election by legislators in October while still army chief.
But, Sherry Rehman, the information minister and a close aide to Zardari, said the leaders vowed to abide by the commitment they made last month to restore the judges.
"It was assured to all coalition partners that we are strongly committed to the Bhurban Declaration," she said, referring to the place in the hill resort of Murree where the pact was signed.
Under the agreement, Zardari had promised to restore the sacked judges within 30 days of forming the government.
A statement issued after Tuesday's meeting, however, did not mention the deadline that runs out at the end of April.
Sharif had made the restoration of the judges the main plank of his election campaign and is pushing hard for them to get their jobs back.
If reinstated, the judges are expected to take up challenges to Musharraf's rule that could end up with the president losing office.
The PPP has been less vocal on the reinstatement of the judges, partly because, analysts say, the judges might take up a challenge to an amnesty Musharraf introduced in October that cleared graft cases against Bhutto, Zardari and others.
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