ANY move to put an end to the cases against Mian Nawaz Sharif, leader of the PML(N), which are currently being heard by a court of law, should be welcome. The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) has written a letter to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani asking him to seek President Asif Ali Zardari's intercession in squashing these cases. Signed by certain well-known personalities and political analysts of the country, a copy of this letter has been sent direct to Mr Zardari as well. The PML(N) is the second largest political party in Parliament and the most popular in Punjab, the largest province, where it heads the government in collaboration with the PPP. And in the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between these two major political forces in the country on the issue of the restoration of the deposed judiciary, the pursuit of court cases by the federal government where the PPP holds the reins of power, further muddies the waters. It unnecessarily keeps the PML(N) and its leadership on tenterhooks and leads to bad blood. Their unending wrangling in Punjab makes them a laughingstock before not only the saner elements in society but the whole world. This is a critical moment in the country's history when it has become embroiled in so many seemingly intractable problems, both under compulsion of external pressure and acts of our own folly. These factors have combined to make the political situation so tenuous and fragile that it beggars description, with the world getting jitters about the safety of our nuclear assets. The economy is in a tailspin, with little signs of recovery on the horizon. One gets an uneasy feeling that our economic managers are just groping in the dark, unable to find the right direction to stage an exit. The terrorist phenomenon has drawn Pakistan in so deeply that it finds itself in a blind alley. The more diligently it pursues this threat with military means to appease the Americans, the wider its tentacles spread and, on top of that, the US never stops finding fault with it. At attempts at dialogue it raises an eyebrow. Apart from the fact that the withdrawal of cases would improve the internal political climate, it stands to reason that the beneficiaries of NRO should view others' lapses rather indulgently. In any case, the cases are controversial in nature. Their removal would make for an improvement of the PPP-PML(N) relations. Should one expect that, in the interest of the country, the proposal made by the PILDAT would find favour with the government?