Pakistan Descends Into Political Turmoil

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 12, 2008 — -- Amid spiraling food prices, rising militant violence and a crime wave sweeping the country, Pakistanis watched with dismay as the ruling coalition collapsed today after less than seven weeks in power.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced his Pakistan Muslim League's withdrawal from the federal Cabinet after party leaders failed to agree on a formula to restore Supreme Court justices, whose firing last year sparked a political crisis prompting widespread street protests and the imposition of martial law.

"The issue of the restoration of the judges has engulfed the entire nation," Sharif told journalists in Islamabad. "I am sorry to say that even after 30 days we could not restore the judges."

President Pervez Musharraf fired the Supreme Court judges in March 2007 and declared emergency rule in November to halt legal challenges to his serving simultaneously as army chief and president.

Under immense international pressure, the U.S.-backed military leader stepped down as army chief Nov. 28 and called for general elections to go forward.

The moderate Pakistan People's Party won the vote, which followed the Dec. 27 assassination of its leader Benazir Bhutto. The party formed a coalition with Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League, its traditional rival, amid promises to reinstate the judges.

But Bhutto's party, now led by her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, waffled on its pledge to restore the judges. Its policy change came after the government dropped outstanding corruption cases against Zardari, who was nicknamed "Mr. 20 Percent" during his wife's second term in office for the bribes he allegedly demanded.

The People's Party, which has other coalition partners, continues to enjoy a majority in the 342-seat National Assembly. But the ruling coalition will lose the two-thirds majority necessary to make constitutional amendments, and to launch impeachment proceedings against Musharraf.

Few analysts expected the alliance between the People's Party and the Muslim League to last. But many Pakistanis expressed disappointment that it had come apart at the seams so quickly.