Internal Fighting Threatens anti-Musharraf Coalition

And if he'd been waiting to exhale, on-the-ropes President Pervez Musharraf can breathe a little easier for the time being.

Why? The great opposition coalition aiming to oust him from power -- the Pakistan People's Party headed by Benazir Bhutto widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif -- is falling apart over disagreement on the reinstatement of about 60 judges dismissed last November by Musharraf. Why are they so important? Because the judges -- including fired Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry -- could rule unfavorably to the president on the legality of Musharraf's re-election.

Nine PML-N ministers resigned from the goverment today, the day after Sharif said the judges would be reinstated. More from the wires:

"The ministers submitted their resignations to Yousuf Raza Gilani, the incumbent prime minister, on Tuesday.

However, Gilani has reportedly refused to accept the resignations.

Sharif said on Monday that the PML-N was 'bound by this date,' referring to a deadline he set with his main coalition partner, the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, for judges sacked by Pervez Musharraf, the president, to be reinstated.

However, he said his party would not take any decision that would strengthen the 'dictatorship,' referring to Musharraf.

The PML-N has pledged to continue supporting the six-week-old coalition from outside the government, the prime minister's office said."

According to Pakistan's Daily Times, Gilani was waiting to address the resignations until Zardari got back in the country.

The disagreement between the PPP and PML-N is all a matter of tactics: Sharif wants confrontation with Musharraf now, while Zardari wants to wait.

But there also seems to be some suspicion, if you read the story in Pakistan's largest English-language daily paper, Dawn, about final intentions within the coalition:

"However, (Sharif) said: 'We will not become part of any conspiracy to strengthen dictatorship and not become a tool in the hands of any person.' He said the party had decided not to sit in the opposition for the time being and to continue to support the government on an issue-to-issue basis."

So there seems to be some serious distrust about whether Zardari's party actually intends to oust Musharraf.