Sharif flies to Dubai for Pakistan coalition talks

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Dubai on Tuesday for a crucial meeting to decide if his party should stay in a month-old coalition with the party of the late Benazir Bhutto.

Sharif is expected to meet Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and leader of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), on Wednesday to try to break a deadlock over reinstating judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf late last year.

"I want from the core of my heart that this coalition should last. I'm going to fulfil my national and moral obligations," Sharif told reporters at the airport before leaving for Dubai.

After their parties trounced Musharraf's political allies in a parliamentary poll in February, Zardari and Sharif forged a post-election alliance and pledged to restore the judges within 30 days of the government being sworn in.

The deadline expires on Wednesday.

The PPP leadership is dragging its feet over the issue, and wants to tie reinstatement to a constitutional reform package.

The package contains proposals that would effectively sideline some deposed judges, including Iftikhar Chaudhry, the Supreme Court chief justice who became a cause celebre for defying pressure from Musharraf to quit in March 2007.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML-N, wants all the judges reinstated unconditionally.