PPP-PML-N coalition pushed to verge of collapse

ISLAMABAD: The PPP-PML-N coalition has been pushed to the brink of collapse in the wake of a serious standoff in their talks on the reinstatement of the deposed judges, with the PML-N left with no option but to quit the federal cabinet.“We have been pushed to the wall where we have no alternative but walk out of the cabinet,” a PML-N minister told The News on condition of anonymity.Nawaz Sharif has departed for Dubai to make another last-ditch effort to save the coalition after his representatives failed to convince PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari to agree to the reinstatement of the deposed judges. However, his mission has few chances of meeting with success. He is going to finally convey to Zardari that it would be impossible for him to keep his nominees in the cabinet if the dismissed judges did not return as committed by both the parties in the Murree Accord. He will dilate on the massive loss of face for reneging on the pledge.However, the PML-N is unlikely to sever cooperation with the PPP at all levels. It will assure the PPP that despite walking out from the cabinet, the PML-N would continue to support its federal government so that it might not cave in.But the PML-N’s decision will herald problems for it as well, as the governments in Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan in which the PML-N has no share will snub any violent movement of the lawyers’ community to protest the non-restoration of the deposed judges by the appointed deadline of April 30.What the PML-N’s policy and attitude of its administration in the Punjab to any such agitation will be is the question in many minds. If the PML-N government chooses to be a silent spectator to any such agitation, it will run into trouble for failing to maintain law and order. As per its policy and public commitment, the PML-N is required to be part of the lawyers’ movement. But naturally it would be extremely difficult and implausible for it to do so because it will have to behave as a government does.“We will decide whether or not our ministers in the PML-N-led Punjab cabinet would continue if the PML-N shows extreme reaction,” a PPP leader said.Already, the PPP ministers in the Punjab have amassed a bundle of complaints, saying that they were not being accommodated by the PML-N, particularly in transfers and postings of senior police and other officials in districts.The PML-N is thoroughly disgusted and anguished over Zardari’s stiff stand against the reinstatement of the deposed justices. Its plan to get even with President Pervez Musharraf through the restored judges, by opening up the qualification case, etc against his eligibility to contest the presidential election, has failed.The PML-N is disheartened that instead Musharraf has become stronger and has been strengthened because of the deadlock with the PPP on the question of the dismissed judges. The fact is that the total split, followed by confrontation between the PPP and the PML-N, will make the president stronger.