The leaders of Pakistan’s ruling coalition were to meet yesterday in Dubai with their one-month alliance on the line amid a deadlock over the reinstatement of sacked judges, party officials said.
Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in Dubai on Tuesday for talks with Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari, with a mutual deadline on resolving the dispute set to expire yesterday.
The two sides agreed last month to push through a parliamentary resolution to restore dozens of judges forced out by President Pervez Musharraf in November when he declared a state of emergency.
But their dispute resurfaced when the PPP insisted the reinstatement of the judges, including former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, be done via a constitutional package that would include plans for judicial reforms.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) insists on adhering to the system agreed upon in March and the 30-day time limit for the judges to get back their jobs.
The former prime minister told reporters before leaving for Dubai that he wanted the “coalition to stay together,” but warned of “disastrous consequences for democracy and Pakistan” if the judges were not restored.
Party sources said the two sides had agreed on the text of the resolution, but the PPP was still pressing for constitutional changes.
“In addition to the agreement on the resolution, we have to work out modalities for implementing that resolution in line with the constitutional requirements,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.
The PPP said Zardari and Sharif were expected to meet around midday in the Gulf emirate, where Zardari — the widower of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto — is staying with his two children.
Musharraf took the unprecedented decision to depose the judges ahead of a decision by the Supreme Court on whether to overturn his re-election as president.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS