Unable to select search result across alphabetical pager

Overview
On basic search or Advanced Search result page, when you select a contact in the first page and then click on the alphabetical widget, you lose what you've selected on the first page. Our client is asking if we can keep selection as you navigate through different pages.

Steps to reproduce
1. Go to Advanced Search, and search all contacts
2. Select first contact of the first result page (e.g. Adams, Claudio). At this point, it says "1 selected contact" on top of the result.
3. Click on the alphabet navigator above search result, and jump to another page like page G.
4. Now the page is "Showing only Contacts starting with: 'G'" and 0 contact is selected.

Comment
Looking at CRM-119, this looks like an intended behaviour (because by selecting the alphabet, you are essentially adding another search criteria). But the client was expecting this to work similar to numerical pager at the bottom (e.g. page 3 of 5, or hitting "next" page button).