The flurry of efforts by the PPP to save Punjab’s coalition government did not work. The PML-N had already made up its mind. Mian Nawaz Sharif announced a parting of the ways with the PPP in Punjab in a press conference in Lahore on the pretext of its failure to implement the 10-point agenda within the stipulated deadline. Prima facie, it was for the sake of the people, but there is another dimension to it as well. After giving a deadline to the PPP, PML-N had taken measures to ensure the allegiance of the PML-Q forward bloc, comprising some 47 members of the Punjab Assembly, by giving it a separate parliamentary status. Although the PPP has declared this move illegal and the PML-Q has vowed to seek the Election Commission’s intervention to have it declared illegal, it is clear that the PML-N has decided to go down the path of confrontation after a three-year stint at reconciliatory politics. All its actions and strategies appear to be directed toward creating conditions for mid-term polls. Given the gradual weakening of the PPP government after the alienation of two of its coalition partners at the Centre, its ouster in Punjab would surely compromise its position at the Centre. Although the PPP has the electoral mandate, it has lost public confidence in its ability to deliver. Theoretically, it is perfectly within the realm of democratic politics to hold mid-term elections if the government decides to call it a day and seek a fresh mandate. However, the PPP has firmly ruled out such a possibility and said the government would complete its term. It is, therefore, pertinent to ask what options are available to the PML-N to achieve this objective, given that it does not have the numbers so far for a no-confidence motion. Will it put paid to the Charter of Democracy signed between Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto while they were both in exile, and revert to the old trick of appealing to the military to intervene? Is the military ready for such an action given its involvement in the war on terror and the blatant illegality of the act? It seems not. Even if mid-term elections take place, parliament’s composition is not likely to alter much and one cannot expect a drastic improvement in governance anytime soon. In this situation, the costly option of mid-term elections is far from attractive. There seems little choice except to let the government complete its term and at the next round of elections, the electorate will have the option to vote out the parties that have lost its trust. *