Top coalition leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif are in constant touch and have agreed that there will be no linkage of the judges' restoration issue with any constitutional package, according to a news report. They have also agreed to meet in a few days to announce the plan for the restoration of the deposed judges, the report published by English language daily The News said. Sharif had spoken to Zardari while senior minister and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had a frank discussion with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, ensuring that no confusion was created on an issue that was settled in Murree on March 9. Disturbed by reports about the preparation of a constitutional package by Law Minister Farooq A Naek and its linkage with the judges' restoration issue, Khan met Prime Minister Gilani early this week to make it clear that the judges' restoration would be done through a National Assembly resolution without linking it with anything else. Khan shared his party's view on the convening of the first regular session of the National Assembly on April 10 without a proper agenda. The proposal to get an assembly committee constituted on the judges' restoration issue was opposed by him. Sharif personally spoke to Zardari during the latter's visit to Raiwind on the issue of the constitutional package and its linkage with the restoration of judges. He told Zardari that the Murree Declaration was clear in all aspects as even the nitty-gritty was discussed on March 9 and it was agreed that through a simple resolution the judges would be restored. During the same meeting, Sharif said that the judges' restoration issue was a simple matter and, therefore, it should not be complicated. Zardari had earlier declared that the judicial crisis was not as big as it was being portrayed. Sharif's party is also not ready to agree to any formula that may exclude any of the deposed judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, from being restored. “We are committed as reflected in the Murree Accord to reinstate the judiciary to the situation as it was on Nov 2, 2007,” a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said. __
