Fallout of the coalition's break-up

The ruling coalition finally broke up on August 25 within a week after Pervez Musharraf's resignation from the office of the president. According to some analysts, the collapse of the coalition was inevitable after Musharraf's departure from the political scene as his presence was the only binding force keeping PPP and PML-N together. Nawaz Sharif and PML-N blamed Asif Zardari for the break-up alleging that he had gone back on his commitment to restore the superior judiciary within 24 hours after Musharraf's resignation and had put forward his candidature for the presidency in violation of the written agreement of August 7. The spokesmen and apologists of the PPP blamed Nawaz Sharif for his inflexibility on the judges' issue.

To be fair, however, there is little doubt that the primary responsibility for the break-up of the coalition lies with the PPP leadership which repeatedly violated written agreements with the PML(N) on the judges' issue since the signing of the Bhurban declaration in March this year. Mr Zardari's shocking and ill-considered defence that written agreements are not like Hadith will come to haunt him in future. Besides the fact that there is a great deal of emphasis in the Holy Quran and Sunnah on the sanctity of the verbal or written commitments, a civilised society can function smoothly only if its members abide by their agreements especially if they have been reduced to writing leaving little scope for a mistake or misunderstanding. The PPP's latest betrayal of the commitments made with its coalition partner  has badly tarnished its image.It has shown the PPP as unreliable partners in the sphere of politics.

Although Zardari has tried to explain that the understandings that he reached with some internal forces (read army and MQM) and external powers (read US and UK) in arranging Musharraf's resignation are responsible for his inability to restore the judges in accordance with the agreement of August 7, it appears from the statements being given by PPP spokesmen alleging that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has been politicised that Zardari himself is also not in favour of the CJ's restoration.