PML President Ch Shujaat Hussain has predicted the fall of the government in two months. He was speaking after the meeting on Thursday of party officebearers, parliamentarians and ticket-holders, and this prediction seemed more of a rallying cry for the troops, than a serious comment. Ch Shujaat has headed a party of power, and perhaps the only way to keep it together after elections have proved its lack of popularity is to predict that elections are around the corner. But while Ch Shujaat is thus performing a small service to the party he heads only in name (for, apart from merely being the Musharraf support group, he actually intervenes in its affairs personally whenever he feels the need), he is performing a disservice to the nation as a whole, for he is implying the government has failed, even though it has barely had time to take over, let alone tackle the many problems facing the polity. All the problems he mentioned the government as not tackling, such as inflation and lawlessness, were the result of the policies of the previous PML government, and that was why it had faced such a painful defeat in the February polls, with Shujaat all the while President. Also addressing the meeting, PML National Assembly Leader Ch Pervez Elahi echoed the Presidency, as was expected, and the PPP, as was not, when he said the current leadership had not fulfilled its election commitments but was concentrating on petty politics. However, he did not mean the judges' issue, still unresolved as the Presidency wishes, but the politics of revenge. The two Chaudhrys cannot do anything about the fact that after their election debacle, President Pervez Musharraf has decided to move on, as witness the closeness he is developing with the MQM. But they could stop making destabilizing statements, which do them no good, not even stop the formation of Forward Blocs. Not only have they been formed in every house with PML members, but if disciplinary action is tried, as in the case of MNA Kashmala Tariq, the result is dirty linen being washed in public. The Chaudhrys should have learnt by now that that cooperation with military dictators does not even earn gratitude.