The commonly held belief is that political machinations happen behind closed doors and over private phone calls – not out in the public. For good reason too; it’s often unwise to let your opponents know what you are planning. Yet it seems that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) push to oust the Sindh government has not only been publically announced, but has been foreshadowed even before it has begun. Reportedly Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry will travel to Sindh on Monday and hold discussions with senior political leaders there, mostly Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) dissidents and other prominent political players, all in a bid to build opposition against the provincial government.

The PTI government’s haste to press the advantage after a damaging Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report against Asif Ali Zardari and his associates is easy to understand. Sindh remains the only province that is firmly outside their influence, and any chance to break that hold will be lapped up by the ruling party gleefully.

However the way the ruling party – and the Information Minister specifically – is almost working in tandem with the JIT will raise a lot of eyebrows an cause a lot of problems. The JIT may have produced a damning report, but that is not the same as a crime proved in a court of law without reasonable doubt. Using the report to base an attack on the PPP and attempting to dislodge it is not far removed from the act of character assassination the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is often accused of. The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) has berated the accountability watchdog often for using the mere fact that an investigation in ongoing to malign politicians, even PTI lawmakers themselves have criticised the practice. Yet when it comes to the grandest stage, the party seems to be happy to use investigations to seek political advantage.

Those who see a nexus between the ruling party and state institutions will only find further proof and ammunition in the bold declaration of war by the ruling party.

Of course the PPP cannot be expected to go down without a fight. A due legal process where the accused is given his day in court and then convicted – the way Nawaz Sharif was - is very different from backdoor scheming to topple a sitting government a few months into its reign. Both are contentious, and both will garner opposition, but the former is the correct way to go about things.

The latter is simply an invitation to tussle – which will prompt unending conflict and instability.