PPP Punjab supremo, Governor Taseers vicious sniping at the Sharif brothers continues unabated. Lately, he has levelled the charge that while the province has gone financially bankrupt, the citizens are left to fend for themselves in the face of rampant lawlessness. Also he boasted he was holding out an olive branch to Mian Nawaz Sharif by offering him ration of food and clothing under the Benazir Income Support Programme. Not just that. It was provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah who also came under heavy fire; Mr Taseer accused him of appeasing and pampering militants in Punjab. There is a long history of bad blood between Mr Taseer and the Sharif brothers, which need not detain us here. Suffice it to say that both the sides are not doing justice to their office when they indulge in such public displays of animosity. Since it takes two to tango, both the sides must shoulder the blame. Just the other day Governor Taseer and Mian Shahbaz Sharif had a gentlemans agreement that they would refrain from sabre-rattling against each other. However, the ongoing slanging-match shows that it is just not possible for them to bury the hatchet. Clearly, all this squabbling has sapped much of the positive energy that could have been diverted towards better governance. It is a pity that despite the fact that the country happens to be at its crossroads, our political figures are indulging in daily combats simply for the sake of point scoring. Of course, Governor Taseer is not entirely at fault when he says that the law enforcement is the duty of the provincial government and that the citizens are dying because of police negligence; but then such criticism has taken on the character of a personnel vendetta and little positive outcome can be expected to come out from such vitriolic attacks. Probably, one lesson that the public is going to draw is that intermittent political squabbles are part and parcel of our democratic polity and is not something that is going to go away soon.