Pakistan: judgement day

There will be further entropy in Pakistan this week.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that the country's ruling coalition will introduce a parliamentary resolution to restore some 60 judges this Monday, including the country's Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the man ousted by President Pervez Musharraf under a state of emergency in November.

The judges may pursue fresh challenges to Musharraf's re-election after they are restored -- a move that could see the president and the judiciary facing each other down once again. The issue has brought the coalition government, led by the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto Zardari close to collapse, just one month after coming to power.

Sharif has vowed to rid Pakistan's 'new democratic era' of Musharraf. Yet he reportedly agreed to the retention of judges appointed by the president -- which could swell the number beyond constitutional limits -- and to impose a limit on their terms. This would reduce the remaining tenure of Chaudhry, who had incurred the wrath of politicians for his willingness to challenge the government. The challenge of clarifying the status of the deposed judiciary is far from resolved, leaving the government vulnerable and the president room for manoeuvre. There is little prospect of the issue being neutralised, adding significance to speculation about the prospect of changes to the coalition line-up.