Zardari faced quite a number of corruption charges and the cases were withdrawn according to NRO.

In addition, a seven-member larger bench of the Supreme Court ( SC) headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar in a petition against the condition of graduation to contest parliamentary elections ruled that people did not have to get a bachelor degree to become a parliamentarian, paving the way for Zardari to contest the forthcoming by-election slated in June.

Sources close to PPP said that Zardari was at ease with Dogar and hesitated to work with Chaudhry as Chief Justice.

The PPP and PML-N emerged as the two largest parties in the National Assembly, lower house of the parliament in the general elections in February. Nawaz Sharif previously said that the PML-N would not join the coalition government. However, after several rounds of talks, the PML-N decided to form a coalition federal government with PPP in return for PPP's pledge to restore the sacked judges including Chaudhry at Murree in Rawalpindi.

As the deadline for the restoration of deposed judges is just around the corner, the PPP seems not ready to make a compromise on the issue. The PML-N even threatened to quit the federal cabinet, leaving open the possibility of an early end of the short period of the courtship between the two parties which used to be arch rivals.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2008)