PML-N ministers to pull out of Pakistan's cabinet

ISLAMABAD, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Nawaz Sharif, chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) announced Monday that the PML-N ministers would resign Tuesday.

Sharif made the remarks while addressing a news conference at the Punjab House here.

Sharif said the PML-N ministers would tender their resignations to Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday because Pakistan People's Party (PPP) could not keep its promise to restore the deposed judges.

He further said the PML-N would withdraw from the government instead of the ruling coalition.

Following the failure of talks with PPP in London on the issue of deposed judges, the PML-N Monday held a central working committee meeting and finally decided to pull its ministers out of the cabinet.

No breakthrough could be achieved on the issue of restoration of deposed judges after holding marathon negotiations with the PPP, Sharif said.

Sharif said that the steps taken on Nov. 3 were unconstitutional and illegal. He said that General Pervez Musharraf sacked some 60 judges in a single move, replacing them with his own under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). We don't accept these PCO judges, Sharif added.

Local TV channel DAWN NEWS quoted sources privy to the talks between the two parties as saying that the PPP intended to retain the PCO judges who took oath of office after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and promulgated the PCO on Nov. 3 in 2007.

The PPP and PML-N emerged as the two largest parties in National Assembly, lower house of the parliament, in the general elections held on Feb. 18.

Shortly after the initial results of the elections were unveiled, the PML-N claimed that it would not join the federal cabinet. However, after several rounds of talks, the PML-N changed its position in Murree of Rawalpindi on March 9. The two parties agreed to form a coalition government and also pledged to restore the deposed judges within 30 days from the day when the government was formed.

The PML-N insisted that the sacked judges should be reinstated unconditionally before April 30 as per the agreement reached in Murree.

However, the PPP had a different opinion about the way to restore the judges. They said that the independence of judiciary was more important than the simple restoration of judges and preferred to bring about a constitutional package to resolve the issue.

According to the proposed constitutional package, the PCO judges would still hold their office and the tenure of the office of Chief Justice would be limited.

A PML-N delegation went to Dubai to meet Asif Ali Zardari, Co-Chairman of the PPP, on the issue of restoration of judges at the end of April. Their talks failed to achieve any breakthrough, which forced Sharif to fly to Dubai and continue negotiate with the PPP.

After several days of meeting between the two parties in Dubai, Sharif disclosed at the beginning of May that the two parties had constructive talks and the judges would be reinstated by May 12.

The PML-N and PPP converged in London last Thursday and continued their Marathon talks on the judges issue. However, talks collapsed because both the parties stuck to their positions on certain issues.

Sharif on Monday vowed to continue the struggle for restoration of judiciary along with the lawyers community, civil society and people.