WITH the PML-N seemingly intent on raking up controversy over due elections to the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies and, in the process, subverting the democratic process, is its silent partner starting to have second thoughts?

The complaints raised by the PPP over the past week against the government in Islamabad would not, prima facie, seem enough to be considered a deal-breaker for the two parties’ marriage of convenience at the centre. Yet, on both occasions, they have been accompanied by overt threats of divorce.

Could it be that the PPP — a party that has long positioned itself as a champion of Pakistan’s democracy, having sacrificed in blood for it — is considering breaking with the PDM coalition lest it becomes a partner in sabotaging the democratic process? Or could the reason — if there is indeed any — be a more Machiavellian one?

Consider, for example, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s warning to the federation last week that his party would quit its ministries if promises made to the victims of the 2022 floods were not made good on soon.

Surely Mr Bhutto-Zardari could not have suddenly woken up to the plight of the affected millions who have, till now, been left to suffer on their own. Was it really an epiphany of their plight that prompted him to threaten resignation, or was he laying the ground for something else?

More recently, PPP leaders once again threatened to quit the ruling coalition, this time over objections to the ongoing digital census. The census had been pending for months and had been given the go-ahead over a broad agreement that a fresh head count was needed after the controversial 2017 exercise. Little wonder that insiders are accusing the PPP of merely politicking over the issue for mileage before the Punjab elections.

The PPP has already made it clear that it will be taking part in all electoral contests regardless of what the PDM thinks. Reports suggest that it is preparing for the Punjab polls even as the PML-N’s senior vice president, Maryam Nawaz, insists on making elections contingent on her father being exonerated from all cases he has been tried and sentenced in.

It would be morally difficult for the PPP to continue supporting the PML-N’s campaign to subvert democracy, which is already under criticism from the country’s intelligentsia. On the other hand, if it acts selfishly, it might even benefit somewhat in certain areas of Punjab at the PML-N’s expense.

The PML-N’s approval ratings are abysmal right now, while the PPP has still managed to keep a respectable distance from the PDM government’s catastrophic failures on the governance and economic fronts. Can the PML-N convince the PPP to continue standing by it while it picks a confrontation with the judiciary? Beware the Ides of March, as they say.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2023