Governor Salman Taseer feels elated for successfully stopping the Shahbaz Sharif government and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to carve a “forward block” for defectors of the PML-Q in Punjab. “My preference and endeavor have been that the electoral mandate of all the parliamentary parties should be respected without any discrimination,” the governor told the Saudi Gazette. However, sources close to him fully shared the PML-N's assessment and judgment that the PPP-presided federal government has no immediate plan to dislodge the political applecart in Punjab for being caught up in extremely severe economic woes, terrorism and other problems. Additionally, they admitted, that any move to remove the Punjab government would create a dangerous chain reaction that would spawn political chaos. “We don't want to get the blame that we disposed of the Punjab government within a month of election of Asif Ali Zardari as president of Pakistan,” one of them said. The source said that had the PML-N gained foothold and the resultant exceptional confidence by forming a forward bloc in the PML-Q, it would have promptly embarked upon the path of knocking off-balance at the federal level. But the governor effectively scuttled its plan, he said. He said that the governor has no doubt and his opinion was shared by President Zardari that the removal of the Shahbaz Sharif administration was not even a minor problem. “The provincial government will instantly go the moment the governor will ask the chief minister to take a fresh vote of confidence,” he said. “Even the PML-N is well aware that it doesn't have the magic figure of 186 in the Punjab assembly to show the simple majority and succeed.” The source claimed that the governor's emphasis on giving due share in development funds to the PML-Q has been a main cause of irritation for the Punjab government. He said Taseer was opposed to making only the PML-N MPAs chairmen of the Punjab assembly committees. He said the imbroglio over the revival of the system of commissioners still persisted as the Punjab government has not come back to the governor with legal backing to its plan to revert to the old administrative format. He said the governor has pointed out to the Punjab government that creation of this system would be violation of the existing local bodies' law. “He has told them that as representative of the federal government he would not allow any illegality to take place,” the source said. Similarly, he said, the governor has pointed out to the provincial government that its decision to stop wheat transportation from the province was violation of the Constitution and it can't do this. “What will happen if tomorrow some other province says it is cutting off gas supply to Punjab?” The governor dubs the Rs2 “roti” (oven baked bread) scheme introduced by the chief minister as “rubbish” and says that the Punjab government has made a mess of wheat situation, which was evident from the change of four provincial food secretaries in a short span of time. The source said that Taseer has told the Punjab government that it has politicized its food stamp scheme by benefiting only its MPAs and ignoring the PML-Q members. “The governor feels that in the first instance, the MPAs should not be involved in such scheme,” the source told the Saudi Gazette. __
