Power-sharing in Punjab

Perhaps one of the peculiarities of the PPP politics was its tendency to ditch its coalition partners while in power. But lately its leadership seems to have realised that the ill from which the party suffered has to be cured to prevent the system from destabilisation.

President Asif Ali Zardari did well by refusing to lend an ear to the treacherous elements in the party who were desperate to overthrow the PML-N's Punjab government in a bid to gain absolute control of power. Maybe some saner counsel helped him realise that with friends like Governor Salman Taseer he needed no enemies. It was no use depriving the country's largest province of an able leadership and handing it over to the likes of Raja Riaz whose only claim to fame was his habit of badmouthing political rivals or his infinite capacity for leisurely amusements.