AZAM KHALIL Hypocrisy is the homage which vice renders to virtue. La Rochefoucauld The relationship between Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) is an uneasy alliance of two political concepts that are in their very basis anti to one another. The uneasy relationship has continued since the last general elections and the coalition collapsed when the federal government, after a court decision, imposed Governors rule in Punjab. Mr Salman Taseer was at that time not fully prepared to garner enough votes that could allow Peoples Party to form a stable government and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, taking a cue from the tenure of Manzoor Wattoo, reneged on their commitment to provide the block 84 votes of their party that would have allowed Salman Taseer and his associates to form a stable government in the province. For some, the most important issue was that the establishment was not ready to digest a proposition where Pakistan Peoples Party that was already leading a coalition government in the ce-ntre and had governments of sorts in NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh should also become the governing party in the province of Punjab. Powerful lobbies have always worked against the democratic forces in this country and it was no different in the present situation. Persistent efforts co-ntinue to be made to weaken the institution of democracy and with it the democratically elec-ted government at the federal level. On the other hand Peoples Party has judged in their own wisdom that to strengthen the institution of democracy and their grip on power it was absolutely essential that their party formed a government in Punjab. To achieve this goal ominous signs can once again be seen on the horizon where Pakistan Peoples Party and PML-Q were cozying up with one another and very soon one could see another political battle to win the province of Punjab. These signs have appeared at a time when the provincial government has decided to hold local government elections in the next six months and one strongly feels that before that time arrives another serious attempt would be made by both PML-Q and Pakistan Peoples Party to topple the government of PML-N which is now presiding over a coalition government in Punjab with the help of Pakistan Peoples Party. To achieve this pur-pose it is understood that overt and covert contacts are being made between the PPP, the PML-Q and some leading members of the PML-Q like minded group (read lotas) and these meetings are expected to intensify in the coming days and weeks before both the sides size up against one another. This will no doubt increase the importance of the splinter PML-Q group that would assume great significance because they would be casting the deciding votes in any future coalition government that will be formed in Punjab. Recently a group of these like minded MPAs had a lengthy meeting to thrash out their future strategy and most of them were now leaning on the premise that they should support their parent political party allowing it to form a stable government in collaboration with Pakistan Peoples Party. Around 32 MPAs had deserted PML-Q and formed the 'like minded group with Ata Maneka as their leader. Now about 20 members wanted to go back to PML-Q because not a single promise made to them by Shahbaz Sharif was fulfilled. These efforts would nonetheless result in a political upheaval in the province because the PML-N on its part will not allow Peoples Party or PML-Q to topple them easily and therefore one can observe invitations being sent to members of this like minded group by provincial Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who has been alerted to the developing situation by members of his own party and some of the members of the so called like minded group who were contacted by Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and other senior members inviting them to come back to the fold of PML-Q. No one seems to be surprised at this current development because the political culture in this country encourages hypocrisy and double cross. There are only a few members in our political corps who can be defined as people with principles who would not bow due to personal gain or for that matter any other bogus reason. Unfortunately this definition cannot be applied to a vast majority of the members of the provincial assembly without discrimination to their affiliation with any political party of the country. Therefore one has to see with this background the recent confrontational statements being issued by both Salman Taseer and Mian Shah-baz Sharif the latest being the issue of basant where the Gove-rnor wants the event to be cele-brated with the usual colourful pomp and show while the Chief Minister is against basant mai-nly due to the fact that some of the kite vendors sell chemically laced string balls that have resulted in serious accidents and even deaths in the past. Stray strings of kites can seriously injure people on motor bikes, bicycles and even on foot and therefore they were banned by the Punjab government. However the Governor is insisting that the festival will be observed and it was up to the provincial government to ensure that chemically laced string balls were not sold in the open market. Similarly, there have been other issues that would not result in an exchange of sharp statements between the top politicians of the province more so as they were sharing a coalition partnership. However issues like the murder of Shazia, a housemaid, or the issue of high rise buildings have resulted in confrontational statements against one another by the leaders of Peoples Party and PML-N. Whatever the out-come, a lot of political heat is expected to be generated this summer and unless sanity prevails the country could see so-me nasty blows being exchanged by the two major political parties that would not be in their own interest and could on a bro-ad spectrum damage the institution of democracy and wea-ken the countrys resolve agai-nst terrorism. The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: zarnatta@hotmail.com