August 24, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 21, 1429

WASHINGTON, Aug 23: The first official work that Asif Ali Zardari plans to do as president will be to reinstate the judges, according to diplomatic sources in Washington.

If the presidential election went as planned, Mr Zardari would take oath as president on Sept 8 and “within a day or two” he would restore the judges, the sources said.

The restoration of judiciary would be done under a plan already agreed upon by the ruling coalition, the sources said. Details of the plan were yet to be disclosed, the sources said, but the move for President Musharraf’s impeachment, which forced him to resign, was part of this plan.

It is still not clear if chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will also be reinstated. Similarly, it is unclear if the powers of the courts will be reviewed before they are restored.

“Once the court is restored, the coalition government will move to grant immunity to Mr Musharraf,” said one source familiar with the government’s plan.

Diplomatic sources in Washington believe that once the immunity is granted, Mr Musharraf may visit the US to meet his son and brother but so far he insists that he wants to live in Pakistan.

The sources admit that there are differences within the ruling coalition on some of these moves. They explain that some within the alliance may opt to stay out or vote against a particular move when it is put before the parliament.

Explaining this point, the sources say that the PML-N may vote against the proposal to grant indemnity to Mr Musharraf while the MQM may vote against the reinstatement of judges.

“Yet this will not break up the coalition,” said one source. “The coalition partners understand that they may not agree hundred per cent on all issues but they want to keep the alliance intact.”

According to these sources, Pakistan’s future political map was discussed with the Americans when Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited Washington late last month.

“The prime minister told the Americans that if you want our politics to mature, let us handle our domestic issues through normal political processes and without external interference,” said a source.

“And the Americans understood,” the source added. “If this (Mr Zardari’s nomination) had happened six months ago, Assistant Secretary of State Richard would have been in Islamabad by now. But now Americans see this as an internal Pakistani issue.”

In recent public meetings in Washington, Ambassador Husain Haqqani has also stressed this point.

“Some people in Pakistan say that all important decisions in Pakistan are taken by Allah, America, and the Army, in that order,” he said. “We want to change that paradigm and we are working seriously on it.”

He said that he also emphasises this point in his conversations with US officials. “We tell them that we want to work with you on things of importance to your country, it will be a policy-relationship in which our domestic political factors will have their own dynamics,” he said.