ZARDARI REPEATS COMMITMENT TO JUDICIARY, TONES

C O N F I D E N T I A L ISLAMABAD 001996 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2018 TAGS: PGOV PK PREL KJUS SUBJECT: ZARDARI REPEATS COMMITMENT TO JUDICIARY, TONES DOWN ANTI-MUSHARRAF RHETORIC REF: ISLAMABAD 1955 Classified By: Anne W. Patterson, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (SBU) In a late May 30 press conference, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Zardari reaffirmed the GOP's commitment to restore the Supreme Court and provincial High Court judges removed on November 3, 2007. He added that he and Law Minister Farooq Naek would discuss this evening the draft 62-part amendment bill, intended to restore the judiciary and clip the President's powers (reftel). Zardari did not provide any further details that have not already been leaked (and reported by Post); he expected the full draft bill to be forwarded to PPP's coalition partners "soon." He refused to accept any imposed timeline, Zardari stated. Directly addressing recent rumors that Musharraf may soon resign, Zardari would only say that Musharraf's fate "would be decided by parliament and the Pakistani people." Zardari said his party "believed in dialogue" for restoring the country's democracy. ¶2. (C) Comment: To many political observers' and commentators' surprise, the only thing really new about Zardari's latest public comments is his toned down rhetoric about Musharraf's future. Just a few days ago, Zardari called the President a "relic," encouraging coalition partner Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to call for impeachment and prompting a very public rumor/counter-rumor (septel). Tonight, Zardari stayed in the game, but did not add fuel to the fire. He also attempted to give the appearance of movement on restoration of the judges, but actually probably stalled until early next week. End comment. PATTERSON