Pakistani Government In Crisis After Ally Abandons Prime Minister's Coalition

[Purveyor]

KARACHI, PAKISTAN - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani sought Monday to shore up support for his embattled U.S-allied government, one day after it plunged into a new crisis when a key ally abandoned the ruling coalition for the opposition.

Gillani met with leaders of the two primary opposition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, in a bid to gain their support in case of a no-confidence vote against him in parliament, which could trigger the government's collapse.

The defection on Sunday of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the governing coalition's second-largest partner, deprived President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party of its parliamentary majority. That raised the prospect that federal lawmakers would oust Gillani, possibly prompting early elections.

Either Gillani's ouster or early elections would jolt an already shaky political order in Pakistan, further distracting the weak government from its U.S.-backed fight against Islamist militants and efforts to deal with corruption, rising inflation and an ailing economy.

The MQM said it decided to quit over recent state-controlled gasoline price hikes, which have compounded the woes of a population already struggling with 15 percent inflation.

MORE...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010303228.html

[truebrit71]

1. "i've got a bad feeling about this"....a nuclear power in poltical turmoil with religious nutters...

..just dying to get their hands on the button...and no, i am not talking about the USA (:evilgrin:)...this has the potential to be REALLY bad...