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I left no stone unturned, says Sharif

ENTERS FRAY: The former Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, hands over his nomination papers for the coming byelections in Rawalpindi on Monday. — Photo: AP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif said on Monday that despite withdrawing from the Federal Cabinet, his party would remain on the Treasury benches as it did not want to be part of “a conspiracy to destabilise the country’s democratic forces.”

“We will not sit on the Opposition benches,” Mr. Sharif said at press conference here. “We will not take any step that will benefit the dictatorship of Musharraf.”

Mr. Sharif said he would also contest the August 18 by-elections, a decision welcomed by the Pakistan People’s Party, which said that it would not put up a candidate against him.

But despite the conciliatory noises from both sides, confrontation with the PPP-led government appears inevitable.

Describing the issue as “tied to Pakistan’s very survival”, he pledged that the PML(N) “will not rest until the judges are reinstated”, and urged the legal community, the media, civil society and students not to rise up in agitation on behalf of the judiciary.

The leadership of the legal community is meeting on May 17 to chalk out a plan of action after ruling coalition’s failure to reinstate the judges.

“The PML(N) will be part of the agitation [for the restoration of the judges]. Nawaz Sharif will be personally present in the agitation,” Mr. Sharif said. “A day will come when the judges shall be restored.”

“If we surrender on this issue to the wishes of the military dictator, it will take us generations before we get an independent judiciary,” he said.

The PML(N) has nine members in the Federal Cabinet. Mr. Sharif said his party was reluctant to join the government as the ministers would have to be administered the oath of office by General Musharraf, who it does not recognise as a legal president.

Despite its concerns, the party had joined the government only on the promise that the judges would be reinstated. Describing the March 8 Murree Declaration as a commitment to the nation by both parties, Mr. Sharif said despite his best efforts, the promise of restoring the judiciary through a parliamentary resolution had been broken.

“I left no stone unturned. I had to go to Dubai for talks [with Mr. Zardari], I went. We had several rounds of talks in Islamabad, we talked in London, but our talks ended in deadlock” he said.

In a sign of rebuilding momentum, lawyers held protests in many parts of the country on the anniversary of last year’s May 12 violence in Karachi that killed more than 40 people as deposed Chief Justice Ifthikar Chaudhary tried to visit the city.

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