Allies at odds?

The two major partners in the ruling coalition are at loggerheads with each other. The diatribe is making its presence felt on the floor of the elected houses and also in the body-politic, sending signals of further instability in an already fragile hybrid system in vogue. The PPP and the PML-N, it seems, are galvanising their instincts for an electoral tradeoff, after years of an unnatural alliance merely to keep the PTI out of the fray.

The origin of the dispute involves issues ranging from flood compensation to water rights. The alleged foul-mouthing of the Punjab Chief Minister is said to be at the root of the dispute, as she asserted her provincial fiefdom to dole out flood relief. This aspect is being contested tooth and nail by the PPP which is at the vanguard in Sindh and demands that the succour should be routed through the BISP.

The verbal standoff is now graduating into a storm, and its intensity could be gauged from the fact that bigwigs such as President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif and the Interior Minister are engaged in make-or-break parleys to ward off any serious consequences. For many, nonetheless, this is no more than a stunt from the allies at the federation to hoodwink simmering ground realities as the government's performance is being questioned.

The political discord has, however, come as an opportunity for the beleaguered PTI, which is flexing its political muscle to disrupt the status quo. The party's proactivity in the form of naming Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Raja Nasir Abbas as new opposition leaders in the National Assembly and Senate, respectively, is likely to help it stay afloat.

The PTI has also invited the aggrieved PPP to join hands for a change in the parliament. That, however, seems an unlikely proposition, and a thaw between the PPP and the PML-N is bound to set in as centripetal forces come into play. The revulsion has simply proved that an unnatural coalition is always time-bound, and personal interests overcome national considerations.