AT stake is the future of a large number of senior politicians, most of them belonging to Punjab. These politicians are deliberating after a recent merger which brought them together with a smattering of politicians from Sindh and Balochistan was brutally snubbed by the PML-N.

PML-N's vociferous 'no' has rid the unity drive of some of its initial vigour. By comparison, national politics was given a fillip with the renewal of contacts between the PML-N and PML-Q.

Following a blasphemous meeting between Chaudhry Pervaiz and presidential aide Babar Awan last month, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain has lately had the honour of a call by PML-N senator and a close Sharif friend Ishaq Dar. What is more significant, Nawaz Sharif has denied ever closing the doors on the Chaudhries.

This makes more sense amidst the circus that passes for Pakistani politics. Even if we were to ignore any ideological divisions that may still exist between any two Pakistani parties, the Chaudhries have been guilty of committing just one mistake that hurt the Sharifs. The decision to side with Gen Musharraf was their first mistake and they had at one time rejected an offer by Benazir Bhutto that could have secured the coveted Punjab throne for them. By contrast, the recently unified PML is currently home to many a politician who has stood against the Sharifs in crucial moments on more than one occasion. They thus stand disqualified under the social clause that says the first mistake is best forgiven if not forgotten.

Let's just name two gentlemen from the pack. Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri was for long a prominent face in the pro-PPP camp. He then joined the PML-N which at last took him into the National Assembly. But as it turned out, he came to be regarded as a staunch critic of the PML-N government in the house and was considered to be almost a renegade much before the 1999 coup caused large-scale desertions in the PML-N.

Hamid Nasir Chattha has an even longer history of crossing over to the side of the PPP. What's more, like Mr Kasuri, Mr Chattha offers the PML-N little in terms of local gains. He has been struggling in his own constituency, having to settle for a Punjab Assembly seat in the 2008 election.

This brings into the equation another factor the territory the Chaudhries operate in. Unlike Lahore where the Sharifs enjoy total control over politics and certain other Punjab cities such as Rawalpindi where they have able lieutenants to oversee their interests, Gujrat doesn't quite have a PML-N stalwart who would feel belittled by the Chaudhries' return to the Sharif party to the disadvantage of the Sharifs. In fact, the PPP politicians from the area are a threat, performing reasonably well even in the worst of times.

There is a clear message in this for the equally unprincipled PPP, which has been shunning its own single mistake makers. The PPP spurned Faisal Saleh Hayat's reconciliatory signal made through his brother, Asad Hayat. It also reacted angrily to the friendly overtures by Rao Sikandar Iqbal's nephew.

Rao Sikandar is no more and the departure of some other seasoned and locally powerful politicians from the scene is a setback to politicians who had so far survived the two-party power politics in Punjab.

Farooq Leghari has passed away, leaving a question mark over the future of his politician sons who inherit their father's animosity towards both the PPP and the PML-N. His death also creates greater doubts that the leftover politicians can cobble together a coalition on the pattern of the National Alliance whose seat tally in the 2002 election that it fought under Musharraf's patronage included not only wins in Punjab but also in Sindh.

The Vario group in Sialkot is almost silent after Chaudhry Abdus Sattar who had been carrying forward the legacy of his brother Akhtar Vario, suffered a heart attack in the run-up to the 2008 election.

Manzoor Wattoo, the master in patchwork who briefly denied the PML-N power in Punjab in the 1990s under the banner of his PML-J, is now a bona fide member of Mr Zardari's new-look PPP.

All this surely represents a serious situation for some of the famous faces in Pir Pagara's League. Even if they escape elimination — a scenario that may involve the announcement of a general amnesty and doling out a few Senate seats by the PML-N — the third front comprising the old individual-politicians in Punjab appears to be on its last leg.