PAKISTAN:PAKISTAN'S RULING coalition last night faced its first significant split as Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, pulled his party out of the alliance, citing differences over whether to reappoint judges dismissed by former president Pervez Musharraf.
Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League and its bigger partner, the Pakistan People's Party of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, have been holding talks aimed at trying to save the coalition for weeks.
But Mr Sharif said yesterday that the two sides had not been able to resolve their differences and his party would therefore withdraw from the alliance. "We joined the coalition to promote democracy and independence of the judiciary. Unfortunately the commitments made by the PPP were not honoured," Mr Sharif said after a meeting of his party.
Analysts said the departure of Mr Sharif's PML-N was not expected to force a general election, as the PPP should be able to gather enough support from smaller regional parties and independently elected candidates to retain a majority.
These include the Muttahida Qaumi Movement which controls the southern port city of Karachi, and the Awami National party, which controls large parts of the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
Asif Ali Zardari - co-chairman of the PPP and the party's main candidate in elections for the presidency, to be held on September 6th to replace Mr Musharraf - declined to live up to his promise of restoring the judges, said Mr Sharif, referring to the clauses he and Mr Zardari accepted in a political agreement earlier this year.
Western diplomats said Mr Zardari was reluctant to reinstate Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary, former chief justice of the supreme court, and other judges. His fear, they said, was that the judges would repeal a presidential amnesty issued by Mr Musharraf last year to Mr Zardari and other politicians facing corruption charges, as part of a deal that led to Mrs Bhutto's return from exile.
Mr Chaudhary last year emerged as a symbol of an independent judiciary when he defied Mr Musharraf's March 2007 decision to sack him on charges of misconduct. Mr Chaudhary successfully appealed against that dismissal but was one of 60 judges dismissed in November, hours after Mr Musharraf imposed a nationwide state of emergency.
Differences between the PPP and the PML-N also surfaced after Mr Zardari was nominated by the PPP on Saturday to run for president. According to PML-N leaders, Mr Zardari's decision came without any consultation.
The break would create a much stronger opposition led by Mr Sharif's party than the current opposition, now led by the marginalised Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid e Azam, which was loyal to Mr Musharraf.
Analysts were divided over the extent to which last night's split would destabilise Pakistan. "There is a very good chance that there may now be the kind of clarity that we were hoping for but couldn't get for the past many months," said Lieut Gen Moinuddin Haider, a former interior minister.
Pakistan yesterday banned the Taliban movement in a symbolic gesture that evoked a mix of support and criticism. The ban followed last Thursday's twin suicide attacks at an arms factory which killed 67 people and injured more than 100. - (Financial Times service)