Pakistan's ruling coalition has failed to agree on a plan to restore judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf, but will reinstate them “soon”, former premier Nawaz Sharif said Tuesday. Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, held two days of talks with Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, in a bid to thrash out details of the plan. The issue is divisive because any move to bring back sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary could lead to a direct stand-off with Musharraf, risking further instability in the militancy-hit, nuclear-armed nation. “A resolution will soon be in the National Assembly (lower house of parliament) for the restoration of the judges and the constitutional package will come later,” Sharif said at a joint news conference with Zardari. “I want it to be done quickly and he wants us to wait. I am showing patience but we are bound by the time rame,” he added. The coalition partners defeated Musharraf's allies in elections in February and signed a pact early the following month pledging to restore the judges within 30 days of the new government taking power. Zardari, who took over the leadership of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party after she was assassinated in December, said a committee of coalition members would examine how best to implement the deal. He said he wanted a “broad-based” plan for the restoration of the judiciary, adding that he was in favor of “finding a commonality without any agitation.” Party insiders say the main division is over whether to leave Chaudhary out of the plan to restore the judges - although there is even disagreement over when the 30 days began from. Musharraf deposed the country's chief justice and dozens of other judges under a state of emergency in November, when it appeared the Supreme Court was about to overturn his reelection as president the month before. If the chief justice is restored he could take up fresh challenges to Musharraf's position. But a further problem is that he could also seek to overturn an amnesty deal made late last year that cleared Zardari of graft charges. The deal allowed Zardari and Bhutto to return home from exile last year. New Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a key aide of Bhutto, freed Chaudhary and other judges from house arrest last month. __
