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Differences in the six week old Pakistan coalition are on the rise, as fresh dispute over whether to remove President Pervez Musharraf from office or not are doing the rounds. Nine ministers from Nawaz Sharif’s party withdrew from the Cabinet today. This was owing to the fact that the former Prime Minister failed to win the reinstatement of justices who will be central in President Musharraf’s ouster.
The Pakistan People’s Party’s Asif Ali Zardari, a senior coalition partner on the other hand favors leaving the formal general as President, while taking away all the powers he seized during the last eight years of military rule. Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N made it clear that his party would leave all federal posts after talks failed to materialize over how to restore the former chief justice and 60 other judges fired in November by President Musharraf.
Nawaz Sharif however maintained that his party would remain in the Parliament and has no plans of stalling the democratic process by damaging the government. Zardari has always been hesitant about the judges owing to his personal experiences. He remarked that the Courts had failed to help him when he spent a decade in jail on unproven corruption charges. Analysts however see the split as a major blow to Pakistan’s progress towards mature democratic rule in the strife torn nation. Public opinion in Pakistan has however put the blame on Zardari for being unyielding.
