Q (PML-Q) was already pain struck for not being able to govern Punjab province after Shahbaz Sharif got re-established in this territory. Some 47 members of the Q group added on to the party's woes by declaring their support for PML-N. This certainly depicts troubled times for PML-Q. It also indicates that PML-N does not need any support from the Pakistan People Party (PPP) to share its government in Punjab. This situation also highlights that the PPP will act as the opposition in Punjab province and the PML-N will be the opposition party in the federal government. This process seems to be difficult though, as both the PPP and the PML-N have been blaming each other since the time of break-up and it would not be viable to work peacefully in each others' administrative territories. The governor's rule in Pakistan has been lifted, as the very purpose for its imposition was fulfilled and the next day the Supreme Court suspended a ruling barring former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother from holding electoral office and restored their government in Punjab. Yet, many skeptics are still searching for the reason and requirement of imposing the governor's rule in the province and neglecting the fact that Sharif did not create an atmosphere conducive to achieve peace in the country by hijacking the right issue of the judiciary movement. They completely overlooked the critical issues of Pakistan and used the country's problematic situation to pressurize government. Indeed, PML-N succeeded to create a situation which somehow turnedout to PPP's detriment. However, it does not provide redound to the reputation of PML-N as well, because of their wrong move at the time when the country is undergoing a number of challenges and the situation requires patience. Perhaps, they have achieved their right purpose, but at the wrong time. It took a year to restore the judges, but former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has sounded apprehensive so far. He is still warning that everyone should continue to be vigilant because many people are still out to hatch conspiracies against the independent judiciary. This means that despite the long struggle to restore judiciary, the hapless people of Pakistan did not get the relief so far. One wonders why the problem persists even after the matter was apparently solved. So many problems may not have occured if the judges' issue was not heavily politicized. Although the restoration of the deposed judges spearheaded by Aitzaz Ahsan and scores of his associates called it a momentous moment in the judicial history of the country, it seemed that people would still have to wait for law reforms. It would be difficult for Supreme Court to resolve further issues keeping in view the past verdicts given at various points of time. For example, it would be difficult for the court to legitimize official pardon of General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf because the Chief Justice was restored through an executive order implying that the Nov. 3 act was invalid. Besides that, judges are divided into four categories in the Supreme Court which is an issue itself. We find the first category comprising those judges who took oath under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) on Nov. 3, 2007. And in the second category are those who were appointed during the period of PCO in operation. Third type is of those judges who were re-appointed and took fresh oath, and in the fourth category are those who were restored along with the Chief Justice through an executive order by the Prime Minister. While judges' issue has been exaggerated, the streets in the country are witnessing the blood-spattered attacks of Taleban who are boldly taking the responsibility for their hits. The security forces are coming under the criticism about their powers and capabilities to enfore law and order. The dilemma in the wake of this situation is that whenever the new order takes hold, it transfers the security officials to another place and reassigns their jobs to other people. Hence, they focus to save their jobs and careers instead of focusing on their responsibilities. They use their energies to establish connections with top authorities and others suffer punishment just because they were linked to previous administration or opposition parties. This dilemma occurred during the governor's rule when the Sri Lankan team was attacked. The dilemma to potiticize the postings will continue as ‘Sharifs' are also known for this practice like others. This state of affairs leads to disruption of the system, arrangements and processes. Therefore, it becomes difficult to strengthen the security system in this sort of environment. Many ‘true democracy-lovers' were hoping for the best at the time of elections last year. But alas, after more than a year, neither the economic and security situation has improved, nor has the Parliament of Pakistan been strengthened. The political parties in the parliament are breaking and fragmenting like a game of chess, even at the time when Washington has increased its attacks to conclude its war on terror. Yet the forward block of PML-Q has again changed the scenario of the parliament of Pakistan which can be challenging for the ruling party's (PPP) working, especially about the cooperation with United States who is announcing generous financial aid for Pakistan. It can be possible that the new forward block of PML-Q can be designated as the Parliament's party because they have the members in majority. Hence, they will be the additional opposition power of PML-N as their supporting group in the parliament. However, the PPP will decide about participation in Punjab cabinet. On the other hand, the fragmented PML-Q is asking for moral justification and blaming PML-N, for starting and promoting the horsetrading culture in the present political scenario. Indeed, this blame seems right given that most of the PML-Q members never belonged to PML-N. The impaired PML-Q is taking the case to the Supreme Court which is going to be the first test for the judiciary, which has been resorted with the help of Sharif brothers and has been allegedly politicized. Let us see if Supreme Court would be able to give its verdict against PML-N for the indulging in horsetrading or not.
