Pakistan's Zardari lets Sharif take back Punjab

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday he wanted to end central rule in Punjab and back the return of a government in the province led by Nawaz Sharif's party in order to reconcile with his rival. "I wish to announce that we shall recommend the lifting of the governor rule in Punjab," Zardari said in a keynote address to parliament. The one-year-old civilian government, led by Zardari's Pakistan's Peoples' Party (PPP), was plunged into crisis earlier this month when former prime minister Sharif drove through Punjab at the head of mass protests that raised fears of a violent climax in Islamabad. The government placed barricades round the capital and put the army on alert as Sharif set off from the eastern city of Lahore. Fearful of instability in a nuclear-armed nation already under threat from al Qaeda and Taliban militants, Western governments and the Pakistan army persuaded Zardari to defuse the crisis by submitting to Sharif's demand for the reinstatement of a top judge. Having reluctantly restored Iftikhar Chaudhry as Supreme Court Chief Justice, Zardari said on Saturday he would let Sharif's party take power again in Pakistan's largest and most politically influential province. "Pakistan has many challenges. What it does not need is a challenge from within its democracy," Zardari said. "Let's put an end to challenging each other. We have enough challenges from around the world and within us (from) our enemies. Let us be friends once again and forever." ROLLING BACK Zardari precipitated the political crisis in late February by imposing central government rule, known as governor's rule, in Punjab, after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif and his younger brother, Shahbaz, from holding elected office. Shahbaz Sharif had been chief minister of Punjab before the ruling. In a step towards dispelling mistrust between the country's two major political parties, the government this month asked the Supreme Court to suspend the Sharifs' disqualification while an appeal is heard. The court is due to hear the government's plea on the Sharifs' behalf on Monday. Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said his party could sit in opposition in Punjab but would not bring down Sharif's government in the province. He said he hoped these acts of reconciliation would mean that he and Sharif could "still meet as friends". Opinion polls show Sharif, the prime minister ousted by General Pervez Musharraf in a coup in 1999, has become Pakistan's most popular politician since returning from exile in late 2007. Sharif's popularity was linked to the uncompromising stand he took over Chaudhry, the judge Musharraf dismissed when he declared emergency rule in late 2007 to extend his presidency. The pro-West Zardari had become widely unpopular, again in part because of his past reluctance to reinstate a judge who had stood up to a military dictator. Analysts say the president had feared the judge might nullify an amnesty Musharraf had given Bhutto and Zardari to return to Pakistan without fear of prosecution in corruption cases.