Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said Zardari was of the view that the local government system had constitutional protection under the sixth schedule.

This could prove to be another sticky point between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that leads the federal coalition and the principal opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif that was once part of the alliance.

The PPP and the PML-N had come together after their one-two finish in the February 2008 general elections but fell apart after Zardari, who is the PPP co-chair with his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, reneged on key pledges made in the governance agenda agreed on before the polls.

There were three key elements in the governance agenda:

* Restoration of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the other judges then president Pervez Musharraf had sacked after declaring an emergency Nov 3, 2007,

* Repeal of the controversial 17th constitutional amendment Musharraf had pushed through parliament in 2002 transferring key executive powers from the prime minister's office to the presidency,

* Appointing administrators in place of the district nazims.

The judges were restored after Nawaz Sharif led a bruising lawyers' 'long march' to Islamabad in March, with Zardari capitulating at the very last minute after Gilani and Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani read him the riot act.

And, in April, while addressing a joint session of parliament, Zardari announced that the 17th amendment would be repealed. A committee has been formed to work out the modalities for this but there has been no other movement forward.