Pakistan PML-N ministers to submit resignations to prime minister
13/5/2008 16:56
The ministers from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will submit
their resignations to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani this afternoon, marking
the end of the six-week-old coalition government.
The ministers will submit
the resignations at 1 p.m. today after they hold a brief meeting with the prime
minister, PML-N spokesman Sidiqul Farooq told reporters.
PML-N leader Nawaz
Sharif announced yesterday that the PML-N ministers would resign following the
failure of talks with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on the issue of deposed
judges.
The PPP and PML-N emerged as the two largest parties in National
Assembly, lower house of the parliament, in the general elections held on Feb.
18.
The two parties agreed to form a coalition government and also pledged to
restore the deposed judges within 30 days from the day when the government was
formed.
However, the PML-N set May 12 as the second deadline for reinstating
the judges after the two failed to meet the first deadline set on April
30.
The three-day London talks between the two parties ended in deadlock on
Sunday because they failed to bridge differences over the judges' issue.
The
PML-N insisted that the sacked judges should be reinstated unconditionally
before April 30 as per the agreement reached in Murree.
But the PPP said that
the independence of judiciary was more important than the simple restoration of
judges and preferred to bring about a constitutional package to resolve the
issue.
Xinhua
|
