A retired Pakistan Air Force officer had an interesting experience recently which is indicative of the ruling party's attitude to law and order and does not auger well for the future. He was driving in Karachi behind a land cruiser with dark black windows, "zinda hai BB" in place of the number plate and a large PPP flag. When the traffic light turned red at the crossing, the driver of that car (zinda hai BB), ignored the signal and drove on. When the traffic light turned green, the Pakistan Air Force officer stopped his car near the policeman on duty at the inter-section and asked why he had not checked the driver of the land cruiser for his vehicles' dark tinted window glasses, no number plate and improper traffic light behaviour. The policeman replied that the car obviously belonged to a PPP worker and he did not want to lose his job. There are other such examples of the ruling party encouraging indiscipline amongst its workers. The PPP co-chairman when addressing party workers during his visit to the Governor's House in Lahore, recently, said that they will soon be invited to the President's House in Islamabad when a PPP president is sworn-in and the place will resound with the slogans of PPP zindabad, shaheed Bhutto zindabad and zinda hai BB, zinda hai. There is a place and a time for everything. Our new rulers would be well advised to take care that they do not exceed the limits of normalcy. The President's House, regardless of who is the president, represents the residence of the "president of the nation" as a whole and not of one political party. He symbolises the dignity of the nation and that dignity must be preserved. It would not be in the interest of the ruling party to exceed the limits set by certain well-tested norms. It would also be in its interest to allow the law and order agencies to carry out their duties un-hindered, not only by their leaders but also by their workers. If they disregard this simple advice they will find their tenure which already appears to be threatened, further reduced. The country is threatened by inducting a pliant judiciary and this along with the jiyala culture which the new government appears bent on promoting will not serve the ruling party's interests and is likely to hasten its exist. The next few months will show whether those in authority heed this advice. The writer is a political analyst