Pakistani parties spar in Punjab

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Karachi

Mr Zardari (right) and Mr Sharif are now at loggerheads

A bitter political row between Pakistan's two main parties has broken out in the province of Punjab.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has fallen out with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

The PPP is led by the recently elected President, Asif Ali Zardari.

Punjab is Pakistan's most densely populated and politically important province. It has traditionally been Mr Sharif's stronghold.

The PML-N wants to consolidate its hold on power in the province.

It has now asked its former ally in Punjab, the PPP, to quit the coalition government.

But the PPP says that if it pulls out, the provincial government will collapse.

'Horse-trading'

After the 18 February elections, PPP and PML-N joined hands to form governments in the centre and in the Punjab province.

The PPP also leads alliances in Pakistan's three other provinces in which the PML-N has no presence.

In May, PML-N walked out of the alliance at the centre, saying the government had failed to restore the judges sacked by former President Pervez Musaharraf last November.

Since then, the mid-ranking leaders of PML-N have repeatedly called on PPP to quit the government in Punjab.

It is a call not made from a position of authority. The PML-N commands fewer than half the members necessary to form a simple majority in the province's government.

But its leaders insist they can survive in power without the PPP.

Observers say PML-N hopes to rope in members of the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) to engineer a majority.

But legal experts believe that PML-Q members who cross over to PML-N could be unseated under an anti-defection clause in the constitution.

"The PML-N is resorting to horse-trading, but it will not succeed," PML-Q leader and former Punjab Chief Minister, Pervez Elahi, said on Thursday.

"Without our support, neither the PML-N nor the PPP can form a government on their own."