August 28, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 25, 1429

NEW YORK, Aug 27: By pulling out of the ruling coalition over the issue of reinstatement of judges, Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif was setting himself up as a “political martyr for democracy”, said the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday and observed that it was a “misleading” move.

“This is misleading at best. The PPP is likely to restore most of the judges to their former seats. The PPP is worried most about the restoration of one judge: Mr (Iftikhar Muhammad) Chaudhry. The former activist chief justice is a highly politicised figure, given his leading role in last year’s protests, which eventually brought down the Musharraf government,” the Journal said in an editorial.

The paper noted that Mr Sharif’s alliance with the PPP was based on expediency, not a meeting of minds.

“There are personal interests at work here, too. Mr Chaudhry harbours no love for Mr (Pervez) Musharraf, and might take action to roll back the former president’s executive order that pardoned crimes of politicians -- including Mr (Asif Ali) Zardari. Mr Sharif might also expect Mr Chaudhry to clear away legal barriers for a third run at prime minister. The best solution here is to appoint a non-partisan chief justice,” the newspaper added.

The newspaper said that Mr Sharif’s party quit the governing coalition on Monday, the same day that Mr Zardari’s party outlawed the Taliban and vowed to fight terror harder. “That’s all you need to know about the priorities of the two parties.”

“Mr Sharif, the paper said, always favoured dialogue over military action against militants. His alliance with the PPP was based on expediency, not a meeting of minds. After February elections, he agreed to support the PPP’s prime minister pick in exchange for control over his home state of Punjab. Both parties wanted to oust then-president Pervez Musharraf. Last week, they did so.