PM tries to save coalition

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called for a "last minute effort" to save his six-week-old coalition government, after refusing to accept the resignations of ministers from the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif on Monday decided to pull out of the cabinet after he failed to break a deadlock with the Asif Ali Zardari, the widower and political successor of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, over how to reinstate the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.

(China Daily 05/14/2008 page10)