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. While some of these external and internal forces may be apprehensive that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry may press ahead on the issue of the disappeared Pakistanis who were allegedly picked up by our all-powerful intelligence agencies and in some cases handed over to the Americans, Zardari's main concern appears to be a successful challenge to the NRO in such a Supreme Court. That the PPP leadership have been less than sincere on the issue of the restoration of the superior judiciary is also evident from the selective re-appointment of the deposed judges of the High Courts through executive notifications in contrast with its earlier position that their restoration required a constitutional amendment or at least an Act of the parliament. The collapse of the ruling coalition together with the selective re-appointment of the deposed judges of the High Courts has delivered a severe blow to the Lawyers' Movement for the restoration of the superior judiciary. It is worth recalling that a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had held the suspension of the constitution and the issuance of PCO by Pervez Musharraf on November 3 last year as unconstitutional and having no legal effect whatsoever. Obviously the orders issued subsequently by Pervez Musharraf under the cover of this unconstitutional step including the removal of the judges of the Supreme and High Courts had no legal validity. Unfortunately, PPP on the one hand agrees that the suspension of the constitution by Musharraf was illegal but on the other considers the removal of the judges of the superior judiciary in pursuance of that suspension as legally valid. There couldn't be anything more ridiculous or illogical. The selective reappointment of the deposed judges is obviously aimed at creating divisions among their ranks, isolating Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other deposed judges not in the good books of PPP, weakening the Lawyers' Movement, and undermining the independence of the judiciary. The success of these efforts to tame the superior judiciary in Musharraf's footsteps will make the rule of law a distant dream in Pakistan. An argument is made sometimes that it would be better for everybody if the government and the political parties concentrated on good governance instead of struggling for the restoration of the deposed judges and the independence of judiciary. This misleading argument is based on the fallacious premise of a contradiction between good governance and the independence of judiciary which is the sine qua non for the rule of law. In fact, one cannot even conceive of good governance in a country lacking an independent judiciary and the rule of law. It is well nigh impossible to maintain social peace, provide justice, achieve economic progress or resolve the day-to-day problems of the common man without the rule of law and an independent judiciary. The break-up of the ruling coalition is, therefore, bad news not only from the point of view of the rule of law and the provision of justice to the common man against the excesses of the strong and the state institutions but also for the resolution of the economic issues of inflation, unemployment and energy crisis which are directly hurting the common man in Pakistan. These issues and the requirements of macro-economic stability demand well-considered economic policies and radical measures backed by solid political support which the coalition of the two mainstream political parties could easily provide. To the extent that the collapse of this coalition narrows the base of support of the federal government, its ability to adopt effective measures for the amelioration of the plight of the common man and accelerating the economic progress of the country will be severely circumscribed. The parting of ways between PPP and PML-N by narrowing the government's political base also weakens its hand in dealing with the issues of extremism, militancy and terrorism in the country which have serious implications not only for the domestic peace, stability and harmony but also for Pakistan's external relations with major powers including the United States in the context of the situation in Afghanistan. A government faced with daunting economic problems and lacking the necessary political support base will find it difficult, if not impossible, to overcome the challenges of extremism, militancy and terrorism. The government in such a situation will also find it difficult to stand up to external pressures relating to important foreign policy issues with a view to safeguarding the national interests. Instead over-dependence on foreign powers combined with the weakness of the internal political base may lead to an abject surrender by the government as was the case with Musharraf's government in dealing with the US and India. In theory, there is nothing wrong from the point of view of the promotion of democracy in the country if one of the mainstream parties is in the government while the other plays the role of the opposition within the framework of recognised democratic norms. But considering the critical political, security and economic issues facing the nation, it would have been much better if PPP and PML-N had managed to work together in the coalition till the next general elections five years later. Their inability to do so has lowered the chances of a rapid improvement in the economic and security situation in the country or even in the handling of our foreign affairs. The country is likely to suffer even more if these two parties make the serious mistake of destabilising each other's government at the centre and in the Punjab instead of cooperating with each other in the spirit of mutual tolerance. It remains to be seen whether the leaders of the two parties have learnt from their mistakes of the 1990's and have acquired the wisdom to put the country's welfare above their narrow party interests. The writer is a former ambassador E-mail: javid.husain@gmail.com