Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari extended concessions to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on Saturday in an effort to ease the deepest political crisis of his presidency, but the response ranged from skeptical to openly hostile.
The standoff traces to Zardari's repeated failure to honor pledges to reinstate judges dismissed by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007. After pressure from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Zardari's office said it would challenge a court ruling that had disqualified Sharif from holding office and would address the judicial question in line with a pro-democracy charter signed years earlier by both Sharif and the late Benazir Bhutto.
Sharif's camp said it would wait and watch. Lawyers organizing a protest march on Islamabad were dismissive: "Our struggle will continue," lawyer leader Munir Malik told AFP. Authorities had already banned protests and detained more than 1,000 activists.
Zardari's position weakened further when Information Minister Sherry Rehman resigned, reportedly in protest at the government's ban on private television channel Geo.
Political analysts saw little in the announcement to break the deadlock, noting the statements were too vague and left unresolved whether judges would be restored to the status they held before Musharraf's November 2007 emergency declaration.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in March 2009, in its own words.