After nearly three years of warfare, the PPP and PML(N) are finally trying to agree on some of the things vital for the common man particularly those related to national economy and governance. They have initially taken up what they considered to be the least thorny issues. The evolving of a transparent formula to fix the petroleum prices and rationalising the gas and power loadshedding are of great importance. In case the country can have a policy relating to gas, petroleum and power issues, jointly owned by the two major parties would prevent irresponsible elements that are out to raise a ruckus around the issues.
More complicated matters are also on the agenda. It is here that the wisdom of the two parties is going to be tested. Gilani had promised to downsize the cabinet months ago but this met snags as it involved offloading some of the nominees of his coalition allies. Will the PML(N) display a willingness to support the government from outside in case of threats of desertions to make Gilanis task easier? Left to themselves, both parties would like to have their trusted nominees on the Election Commission. So agreeing on an independent Election Commission poses problems. Patronage being as common at the Center as in Punjab, it remains to be seen if the two sides can agree on the removal of their incompetent and crooked blue-eyed boys from government bodies.
The real crisis will come when more sensitive issues come up for talks. The demand for the change in accountability laws and the implementation of the SC verdict on NRO are perceived to target Zardari directly and could prove prickly in talks. An easy cop out, if talks were to fail, would be to draw daggers again. The emerging consensus would then mean nothing if they were to revert to their adversarial mode. But a consensus among the two would mitigate the prevalent sense of uncertainty and send positive signals to international donors.
