Pakistan’s politics has a way of turning every national tragedy into a contest of egos. The recent feud between the PPP and PML-N, played out in walkouts, press conferences and ministerial barbs, serves as a grim reminder that our federation’s fragility is not structural. It is political. At a time when over two million Pakistanis are marooned by floodwaters, their homes and crops washed away, the ruling alliance appears submerged in its own quarrels.
It began with the Cholistan canal and grew into an all-out turf war. When Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz declared that if Punjab builds canals with its water, it is no one else’s concern, she was not just defending a policy. She was striking at the spirit of federalism. Sindh’s PPP, already wary of being sidelined in flood aid coordination, saw this as provocation and walked out of parliament, demanding an apology. Instead, Punjab doubled down. The exchange, fuelled by loyalists across press conferences and social media, has turned inter-provincial mistrust into political theatre.
Sindh’s ministers accused Punjab of using their province’s name to settle internal scores with the Prime Minister. Punjab’s spokespersons mocked Sindh’s governance record in return. What should have been a sober inter-provincial dialogue has descended into a race to claim moral high ground. The result is rhetoric drowning reason, as if this federation had learned nothing from past crises of mistrust and neglect.
President Zardari’s decision to summon Interior Minister Naqvi to Karachi signalled the depth of anxiety. Even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, reportedly asking his elder brother to mediate between Maryam and the PPP, seemed to grasp the danger of political ego eclipsing governance. Senator Sherry Rehman’s caution that Punjab is not anyone’s personal estate was both a warning and a plea for restraint within her own coalition.
There is still progress amid the posturing. Punjab has deployed more than two thousand relief teams and announced compensation of up to one million rupees per destroyed home. Meanwhile, Sindh has mobilised parallel efforts for relief and rehabilitation. Yet good policy without political prudence rarely survives the noise. Every televised jab between coalition partners chips away at the credibility of both, while millions watch their leaders spar.
If Pakistan’s ruling elite hopes to rescue more than their reputations, they must rediscover the discipline of coalition governance. They must listen more and place national relief before partisan rhetoric. *