Islamabad: Pakistan's coalition government faced its first major crisis on Tuesday with Nawaz Sharif's PML-N threatening to withdraw its ministers from the cabinet after talks on reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf were deadlocked.
"Our joining of the federal cabinet was conditional. We will review the decision and we may withdraw our ministers from the cabinet but that is still a supposition," PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq said after admitting the talks had run into problems if Wednesday's deadline for restoring the judges is not met.
The PML-N will make a decision on its future course of action after April 30, he said.
Two days of parleys between Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and a PML-N team lead by party president Shahbaz Sharif in Dubai ended inconclusively today with both parties failing to finalise modalities for restoring the judges despite a 30-day deadline set to expire on Apr 30.
The PML-N had sent a team for consultations with Zardari, who is currently in Dubai to meet his family.
Sources said the talks ran into rough weather over two issues the PPP's decision to link the restoration of the judges to a constitutional package for judicial reforms, and the tenure for deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry once he is restored.
Farooq, however, said the PML-N would not take any step that would "damage" the coalition government.
The PML-N, he said, is hopeful that both parties would fulfil "their solemn pledge to the nation" on reinstating the sacked judges.
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