Former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif on August 25 quit the ruling coalition over differences on the reinstatement of sacked judges and, challenging his former ally’s presidential bid. “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 told a press conference adding, “This situation forced us to withdraw our support and sit on opposition benches.”
Sharif and Asif Zardari, the co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), have for months been at loggerheads over restoring judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML(N) party repeatedly threatened to leave the coalition if the judges were not restored to office. Their differences, which have been put on the backburner for sometimes, popped up again after they managed to achieve their top priority: forcing Musharraf to resign as president under the threat of impeachment.
In May, Sharif froze the participation of his nine ministers in the 24-member federal cabinet over the re-instalment of the sacked judges. He only returned to the government after Zardari had assured him that the judges, who refused to take oath under an emergency order issued by Musharraf in November, would be restored within 24 hours of removing Musharraf. But Zardari has once again backtracked on his promise.
Sharif is also accusing the PPP of violating an earlier agreement on nominating a non-partisan candidate if article 58-2B, which allows the president to dissolve parliament, was not repealed. “The PPP even nominated Zardari for president and announced the election schedule without consulting our party,” he said.
As per the agreement, a neutral president should have been elected till the annulment of the controversial article.
“We therefore feel that these repeated defaults and violations have forced us to withdraw our support from the ruling coalition and sit on the opposition benches,” Sharif said. “We have requested [retired Supreme Curt chief justice] Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui to accept our offer to become presidential candidate. He is a good Pakistani who is a non-partisan person.” The PML-N is also considering to resort to the Supreme Court to challenge Zardari’s candidacy.