Nawaz said the government will introduce a parliamentary resolution to restore some 60 judges, including the Chief Justice, whom Musharraf deposed under a state of emergency in November.

Nawaz made the announcement a day after holding talks in Dubai with coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari to resolve a deadlock over the issue that threatened their fragile alliance.

“God willing, all the deposed judges will be restored on May 12,” Nawaz told a news conference in Lahore after meeting with senior members of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Party.

“The National Assembly will approve a resolution the same day followed by the issuance of notification of the restoration of judges deposed unconstitutionally on November 3,” he said.

The judges could take up fresh challenges to Musharraf’s re-election after they are restored, a move that would prompt yet another standoff between the president and the judiciary.

“We will continue our struggle to rid this new democratic era of Pervez Musharraf,” Nawaz said.

PML-N and the PPP trounced Musharraf’s allies in elections in February and formed a government the following month.

Zardari, the Co-Chairman of the PPP, and Nawaz agreed at a summit in the hill resort of Murree in March to restore the judges, but a 30-day deadline that they also gave at the time expired on Wednesday.

The PPP had insisted that judicial reforms also be part of the package that brings back the judges. But Nawaz, the Chief of the PML-N, wanted them to be reinstated without conditions. - [via AFP]