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Dubai: A reinstatement of judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf that had threatened Pakistan's ruling alliance will take place as previously agreed, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday after emergency talks with coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari.
"The talks have been successful and we have agreed to reinstate the judges through a resolution in the assembly as was earlier decided in the Murree Declaration," Sharif told reporters in Dubai after the meeting with Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
"We have averted a split [in the coalition] by reaching the agreement," said Sharif, the chief of Pakistan Muslim League (N).
"There is no ambiguity, there is no doubt about it," Sharif said. He did not divulge details of the final agreement reached last night but said he would hold a press conference in Lahore on Friday to announce the details.
Sharif also said that the issue of restoration had been de-linked from a bigger constitutional package, which also contains decisions including curtailing powers of the president.
The PML-N leader told Gulf News before going into the meeting: "I don't want reconciliation at the cost of the national interest and I will fight to the last to reinstate the deposed judges."
Zardari, who left the meeting 10 minutes before it ended, refused to give any details to the media: "We don't do politics in Dubai. I will speak to you in Pakistan." However, he said the coalition is strong and will be stronger in future.
The breakthrough in the crisis talks, which at one point was on the verge of collapse, brought relief to millions of Pakistanis who feared another political crisis in the country if the ruling parties parted their ways.
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