ISLAMABAD, August 22 (AP): Pakistan's main ruling party has proposed that the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto become the country's next President.
Spokeswoman Sherry Rehman said the party leadership was unanimous in backing Asif Ali Zardari to replace Pervez Musharraf, who resigned Monday last to avoid the threat of impeachment.
The Election Commission announced Friday that federal and provincial lawmakers would elect Musharraf's successor on September 6.
Another report adds: A day after suicide blasts at Pakistan's largest arms factory killed 67 people, Pakistani leaders Friday temporarily averted a crisis that threatened to tear apart their shaky ruling coalition.
The party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had threatened to quit the governing coalition without an agreement by Friday on the reinstatement of judges fired by Pervez Musharraf.
After talks with other coalition leaders, Sharif set Wednesday as a new deadline - already the third since Musharraf's ouster - to restore the judges.
Rifts that have long existed between Sharif's party and the largest block in Parliament, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), were submerged as they united to oust Musharraf, but have since resurfaced.
The tensions come as the country faces renewed resistance from militants. They staged twin suicide bombings Thursday in an attack that highlighted the growing extremist threat in the Muslim world's only nuclear-armed nation.
The police said the death toll from blasts had climbed to 67 people and that another 102 were wounded, many critically.
A day after the attacks, Pakistan's civilian leaders met for talks on how to restore the judges ousted by Musharraf last year and who should succeed him as the head of state.
The United States and other Western countries, who had counted for years on Musharraf to counter al-Qaida and the Taliban, expressed the hope that the democratic mandate of the new government - made of up of moderate parties - would continue that fight.
Ordinary Pakistanis are even more anxious for the government to do something about rising inflation and inequality holding much of the population in poverty.
But the main political parties, staffed by Pakistan's narrow elite, are traditional rivals whose election pledge to restore an independent judiciary is bogged down in political maneuvering.
Sharif, a bitter foe of Musharraf, Friday accused Asif Ali Zardari of failing to respect an agreement to bring back the justices within 24 hours of Musharraf's resignation.
Having granted smaller coalition partners a request for three extra days to consider the ramifications, he said, the parties would draw up a resolution on restoring the judges and introduce it to Parliament Monday.
A leader of a powerful lawyers' movement that has mounted street protests in favour of the judges expressed issued a veiled warning against any further backsliding.
"Many promises to the nation have not been honoured," Tariq Mehmood said. "If somebody thinks that people will be satisfied after Musharraf's removal, let me tell you that people want the rule of law."
But Sharif was immediately contradicted by one of two smaller coalition parties.
"Wednesday should not be considered the final word. There could be a delay of a day or two. But you will see results in a week or so," said Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Sharif argues that a simple order from the Prime Minister is enough to restore the judges. But Zardari has consistently blocked that, arguing that it requires a constitutional amendment.
Sharif, meanwhile, may view the judges as likely allies if he follows through with threats to have Musharraf tried for treason - a charge punishable by death. Sharif has also been more reserved than Zardari about embracing Pakistan's unpopular role in the US-led war on terrorism.
Many Pakistanis say Musharraf's heavy-handed use of the army against militant strongholds in the northwest has only increased sympathy for the militants and emboldened them to strike back with scores of suicide bombings over the past year.
