NEW YORK Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has threatened to pull his party out of the governing coalition if all the judges dismissed by former president Pervez Musharraf are not reinstated after a Friday deadline, but he ruled out bringing down the government.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Sharif said he was prepared to withdraw his party from the coalition, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, if about 60 judges, sacked during a six-week state of emergency declared in November, aren`t given their jobs back immediately.

`We will not try to bring the government down,` Sharif told the newspaper.

`But of course, we then have no choice but to sit in the opposition.`

Sharif also indicated that he would not stop former president leaving the country, although his political supporters were eager to press charges against Musharraf.

Sharif acknowledged that some of his supporters wanted to see Musharraf in jail, but said he personally bore no grudges and would not mind him slipping out of the country.

`If he wants to go, I won`t stand in his way,` Sharif told the newspaper. `He might want to take a break.`

Writing about the impending political showdown, the WSJ said if Sharif carried out his threat of walking out of coalition it would force the Pakistan Peoples Party to find other partners so it could maintain a governing coalition in parliament.

The paper said that since returning to Pakistan late last year, Sharif had tapped deep reservoirs of support and presented himself as an uncompromising democrat.

In that role, he denounced Musharraf and the military`s long history of involvement in politics. `Musharraf threw the judges out of office. He ridiculed the institution,` he said.