It is hoped that the promises made by the Prime Minister to the Punjab Chief Minister in a meeting at the PM House in Islamabad on Wednesday with regard to solving the loadshedding crisis, gas shortage, giving complete control of the devolved ministries, etc. will now be fulfilled. In fact, one had wished that these issues had not arisen or at least had been resolved long ago. Ideally the problems of the public ought to have taken precedence over political wheeling and dealing. Still, it bears pointing out that the meeting was called because Mian Shahbaz Sharif had written a letter to Mr Gilani telling him in unambiguous terms that the federal setup was foot-dragging on a number of issues. As a result of the meeting, a two-member committee with Senator Ishaq Dar and Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar has been set up to see to it that outstanding issues, including politically motivated delay in the construction of 400MW Nandipur power project, besides devolution of ministries to Punjab in letter and in spirit are settled quickly. Already, there is a perception that the federal government has been deliberating creating problems for Punjab like, for instance, cutting back on its share of gas merely to upset it politically. Understandably, Punjab is the hub of industry and as more and more entrepreneurs are shifting their business here owing to the deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, it is cruel to deprive it of its due share of electricity. It is obvious that if these problems are not resolved, political reconciliation between these two mainstream parties will remain a dream. The PPP-led government needs to change its attitude and work with the Punjab setup in order to lessen peoples miseries. Sadly, Mr Gilani asked the CM to give him a two weeks time to honour his commitments, even though the problems are of purely administrative nature and his orders could have resolved them in a day or two.