ISLAMABAD   -   The PTI government, with the support of its five coalition partners, has successfully entered in the third parliamentary year. The two year performance of the ruling party reflects that it has been enjoying good relations with its allied partners from smaller provinces, as compared to the previous governments [PPP-P and PML-N].

The coalition governments always have to face numerous internal and external challenges to smoothly run the government’s affairs.  The ruling parties, throughout their tenure, have to face tacit or open threats from its allied partners.

Recently, the PTI’s government had faced a dent in the second parliamentary year as its one of coalition partners from Balochistan [BNP-Mengal] parted ways. However, it is still in the favour of the ruling party that the Sardar Akhtar Mengal had avoided becoming part of opposition benches in NA.

Political pundits viewed that the parliamentary parties in the past parliamentary eras had taken no time to join opposition benches after distancing themselves from ruling alliance. “MQM in the PPP’s government era had left the ruling alliance and joined opposition benches a number of times,” commented an expert of political and constitutional issues, mentioning that the present government has so far not faced any serious threat to run its government in centre.

The five coalition partners including the MQM-P with seven seats in the centre,  the PML-Q with five, GDA with three and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) with 5 and the AML- League led by Sheikh Rashid Ahmed make a total of 21 members to increase the strength of ruling party in the centre. BNP-Mengal, with its four members, is neither supporting the government nor the opposition. Contrary to the claims of political experts, the relation between the PTI and MQM-P in the last two years has remained friendly as the former supported its coalition partner in every difficult time. PML-Q, another important coalition partner in the centre, has also been enjoying good relations both in the Punjab and in the centre.

The support of the rest of the allied partners could be gauged from the friendly relation in the Parliament. AML and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) in the last two years have never deceived the ruling party in the Parliament while voting on any legislative matter.