THE PPP Central Executive Committee, which met in Rawalpindi on Thursday at the residence of party co-Chairman Asif Zardari, saw two major issues raised. First was the issue of the restoration of the judges to their status before November 3, where there was a dispute between Ch Aitzaz Ahsan, who is also Supreme Court Bar Association President, and Senator Babar Awan. Ch Aitzaz argued that the judges could be restored through an executive order while Senator Awan argued for the need of a constitutional package. The party's highest decision-making body made no decision on this issue, which, American surveys have showed, is the top issue among Pakistanis today. Then the CEC touched on relations with the Punjab government, and was told that the continuation of the coalition there would only damage the PPP. There is an element of self-service in this, as CEC members must find that their work does not get the swift treatment they feel it should get. But where Governor Salman Taseer, the highest-ranking PPP appointee in the Punjab, says that if he had wanted, the Shahbaz government would not have existed, there is bound to be an element of wanting the coalition out. Yet the CEC should have taken deeper stock of why the many crises in the country, mostly economic, are not coming under the control of the PPP government. It should have realized that only when the government included the PML(N) would it be able to solve some of the country's most pressing problems, and the PML(N) has made clear it will co-operate only when the judges are restored. The PPP already realizes that this issue, of the independence of the judiciary, is the most pressing for the Pakistani people, and the PPP leaders have got this feedback from their constituencies. Apart from electoral politics, the PPP should realise that it has no option but PML(N) support, and for that it must have a resolution of the judges' issue, on PML(N) terms, no matter who is offended or embarrassed.