Judges to be reinstated on May 12: Sharif

Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif said yesterday that judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf will be reinstated on May 12.
"God willing, all the deposed judges will be restored on May 12," Sharif told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore, after returning from Dubai where he held talks with coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari.
"The national assembly will approve a resolution the same day followed by the issuance of notification of the restoration of judges sacked unconstitutionally on November 3," he said.
Judges purged by Musharraf to protect his disputed presidency will return to their posts "with dignity, respect and honour," a leader of Pakistan's new government said Friday.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's forecast followed two days of talks aimed at settling differences within the ruling coalition over how to bring back the judges.
The issue is critical to the survival of Pakistan's month-old civilian government. It could also determine the ability of its US-backed president to cling to his already diminished powers.
Leaders of the two biggest parties in the coalition emerged from marathon negotiations in the Persian Gulf state of Dubai late Thursday. Both sides insisted they had made progress on the judges
issue and that the coalition would survive.
However, they announced no final accord and said Sharif would only disclose details of their discussions after a party meeting in his home city of Lahore on Friday.
"We have decided to restore the judges" through a resolution in Parliament, Sharif told reporters on his arrival early Friday at Lahore airport.
The justices will "go back to the courts with dignity, respect and honour," he said.
Before facing his colleagues, Sharif met with US Ambassador Anne Patterson. US Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said only that they would discuss "issues of mutual concern."
American officials hail the country's return to democratic government after eight years under Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terror who retired as Pakistan army chief in November.
Yet they worry that efforts by the new administration to strike peace deals along the Afghan border in order to curb surging militancy could ease the pressure on Taliban and al-Qaeda and allow them to plan more attacks in Afghanistan and the West.
Musharraf ousted some 60 senior judges - including Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry - when he imposed a state of emergency in November to stop legal challenges to his re-election as president.
But the crackdown only deepened his unpopularity, and his allies were routed in February parliamentary elections which propelled his opponents to power.
Sharif has pushed particularly hard for the reinstatement of the judges, stirring speculation that he sees them as an ally in a drive to oust Musharraf completely. The judges could re-examine complaints
that Musharraf was ineligible for another five-year term.
But the party of assassinated ex-leader Benazir Bhutto, which leads the government, has sought to link their return to broader reforms that could crimp Chaudhry's tenure and powers.
There is considerable uncertainty about the legality of their plans - raising the prospect of months of wrangling that could distract the government from tackling serious economic problems as well as Islamic militancy.
Chaudhry had shown an unusual degree of independence, investigating complaints that the country's spy agencies were holding opposition activists secretly under the cover of fighting international terrorism.
Musharraf accused the chief justice of corruption and of conspiring against him and his plans to guide Pakistan back to democracy.
Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and political successor, has said that Chaudhry and other judges were "playing politics" and failed to deliver justice to him during the years he spent in jail on unproven corruption charges.
The coalition was founded on a promise to restore the judges through a parliamentary resolution by the end of April. Its leaders sought Thursday to play down the significance of the missed deadline.
The Dubai talks "sorted out many issues and the alliance partners are on the same wavelength and on the same page," said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Zardari's party.
Reports of a split between Zardari and Sharif "to the point of endangering their alliance are exaggerated and untrue," he said.