(PTI): Pakistan’s top court suspends its ban on PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif from holding office, to ease political turmoil in the violence-hit country. Islamabad’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that ‘the operation of its judgment shall be suspended’ until the final disposal of a review of the ban.

“The supreme court has suspended the February 25 decision,” said Syed Zafar Ali Shah, an official in Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party.

Local televisions footage showed Sharif’s supporters distributing sweets in major cities and towns across the country.

The new decision allows the two-time former premier to contest elections and reinstates his brother, Shahbaz, as chief minister of the country’s most powerful province, Punjab.

It is considered the latest in a series of political victories for Sharif and his right-wing allies.

However, law experts say the court ruling is a temporary stay of the order of disqualification against Sharif brothers, while the court reviews the case against them.

On February 25, the top court had upheld a lower court verdict that barred Sharif and his brother from contesting elections and holding public offices.

Sharif had accused the PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari of influencing the court’s verdict — an allegation denied by the president.

The ban against Sharif was also fueled by an old dispute over the reinstatement of judges sacked by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007 under an emergency rule.

Sharif joined campaigning lawyers in demanding the reinstatement of the top judge, Iftikhar Chaudhry, whom the legal community regarded necessary for an independent judiciary.

Zardari had come under massive pressure from the elements within his own party to defuse a standoff with Sharif, who urged the masses to rise up against the government.

Sharif and his allies called off protests after it was announced that the judges would be reinstated. Chaudhry resumed his office on March 22.

The president’s office also promised that the PPP-led government would file an appeal to the Supreme Court against the ruling.

The court ruling comes a day after President Zardari ended federal rule-locally known as governor rule- in the eastern province of Punjab. The governor rule was imposed following the controversial Feb.25 ruling.

There are indications that other issues that inflamed tensions between the two major political parties will also be resolved.

The reconciliation comes as the al-Qaeda and Taliban linked insurgents are extending their influence in the major cities across Pakistan.

On Monday, an attack on a police training center near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore left around 22 people killed and more than 50 others wounded.

President Zardari and Interior Ministry Chief Rehman Malik have repeatedly said that the Taliban insurgents want to take over the nuclear-armed state of Pakistan.

Any rift between political parties and democratic forces will give the insurgents a bigger chance to implement their violent agenda in the troubled region.