Nawaz Sharif pulls out of Pakistan coalition

ISLAMABAD: Nawaz Sharif's PML-N has pulled out of Pakistan's ruling coalition and has decided to sit in the Opposition, said Dawn Channel. This was decided in a meeting of top leaders of former premier Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N.

The party has decided on Pakistan former chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui as its presidential candidate.

The meeting of the PML-N's central working committee, to be chaired by Sharif, was held in the wake of comments by top party leaders accusing the Pakistan People's Party of not honouring commitments to reinstate judges sacked during last year's emergency by former President Pervez Musharraf.

"There is no need (for the PML-N) to be part of the coalition government if one party is taking decisions unilaterally," PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq said.

The PML-N had on Sunday boycotted a meeting of a committee that was to draft a parliamentary resolution for restoring the deposed judges after PPP co-chairman refused to commit himself to Sharif's deadline for completing the process by today. Zardari has said that the judges will be reinstated but that he could not set a timeframe for this.

The PML-N has been angered by Zardari's comments that the PPP's agreements and declarations with the party on restoring the judges could be "altered or modified" to suit the evolving political scenario. Senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal pointed out that the latest pact between the two parties was signed by Zardari and Sharif before the holy Quran.

The PML-N has also been irked by the PPP's move to nominate Zardari as its candidate for next month's presidential polls without the scrapping of the President's controversial powers to dissolve parliament and dismiss the prime minister.