Zardari won't complete five-year term: Nawaz

Amidst a worsening political crisis in Pakistan, main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif has stated that President Asif Ali Zardari will not be able to complete his five-year term in office.

Former premier Sharif, who has been on the warpath since the Supreme Court barred him and his brother Shahbaz Sharif from contesting polls and holding elected office, called on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to implement the Charter of Democracy signed by the PML-N and ruling Pakistan People's Party in 2006.

Sharif told a television news channel in an interview on Thursday that Zardari, whom he has blamed for influencing the apex court's verdict, would not be able to complete his term. He did not give details.

He also said the Pakistani people did not trust the judges who had barred him and his brother from contesting polls. Gilani should restore the judges sacked during the 2007 emergency through a notification and the whole nation would support the premier in this action, he said.

Sharif and his party have thrown their weight behind the "long march" launched today by the lawyers' movement to press the PPP-led government to reinstate the judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf.

He said the long march and the proposed sit-in outside the parliament on March 16 are a "national obligation".