Cracks in Pakistan coalition day after Musharraf quits

By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A day after President Pervez Musharraf quit, leaders of Pakistan's fractious coalition government squabbled over the judiciary on Tuesday and a bomb killed 25 people, underscoring the challenges facing the nation.

Musharraf, the former army chief and key ally of the United States in its campaign against terrorism, resigned as president of nuclear-armed Pakistan on Monday to avoid impeachment.

Coalition leaders, who campaigned against Musharraf, met for several hours to set about tackling pressing economic and security problems and to discuss a new president but got bogged down over the fate of judges Musharraf purged last year.

The bickering and prospects of more to come are likely to dismay investors and allies.

"If they cannot agree on the restoration of the judges in a matter of days, then clearly something is not right with the coalition," said Farid Khan, an analyst at Credit Suisse.

"We cannot afford to lose months, or even weeks on these political issues. They need to get to the economy, and only a strong government can take the tough decisions needed for the economy," the Karachi-based Khan said.

Security is also a huge problem, as the suicide bomb attack at a hospital in the town of Dera Ismail Khan illustrated.

The bomber struck in the compound of the hospital as members of the Shi'ite Muslim minority were holding a protest against the killing of a leader earlier in the day.

Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

Elsewhere in the northwest, 20 militants were killed in a clash, the government said.

The two main coalition parties who must now deal with these problems were bitter rivals through the 1990s when Benazir Bhutto and Nawiz Sharif severed alternating terms as prime minister. Analysts have said opposition to Musharraf bonded the old rivals and his departure could see them drift apart.

Sharif, who heads the second biggest party in the coalition, has been insisting the judges be restored to office.

But the party leading the coalition, that of the assassinated Bhutto, has wavered, partly because the deposed chief justice might take up challenges to an amnesty from graft charges granted party leaders last year, analysts say.

Leaders of two small parties in the four-party alliance played down the dispute but said they had been given three days to resolve the problem between the big parties.

"We have been assigned to reach a consensus on the situation within the next 72 hours," Fazal-ur-Rehman, leader of a small religious party, told reporters.