PML-N threatens to quit cabinet if May 12 deadline not met

Islamabad, May 10 : PML-N leader and former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif has reportedly called a joint meeting of his party's Central Working Committee and parliamentary group on May 12, to decide whether to continue to support the PPP-led federal coalition government.

May 12 is the fresh deadline for restoration of judges who were suspended by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3, 2007. The PML-N has been demanding their restoration, and it even included this demand in its manifesto prior to the February 18 polls.

The meeting would decide the party's line of action in case deposed judges of the superior courts were not reinstated by the May 12 deadline and negotiations between leaders of the PML-N and PPP in London failed to resolve the issue, the Dawn quoted PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooque as saying.

There was a possibility that the meeting might recommend withdrawal of the PML-N ministers from the cabinet, he said and added the PML-N had already announced that its ministers would quit the cabinet in case the judges were not reinstated to Nov 2, 2007 position.

Farooque further said the PML-N would quit the cabinet, but would not become a part of any move to destabilise the PPP government.

However, he said, if the judges were not reinstated the PML-N would join the nation, the civil society and lawyers' community as the party had made a commitment on the issue. "There is a possibility that if we fail to utilise parliament for resolving the judges' issue the party will have no option but to join the civil society and lawyers' movement and then streets may play the major role," he said.

ANI