Punjab cabinet expansion: PPP and PML-N differences may trigger another showdown

The lingering issue of the Punjab cabinet expansion is once again pitching the two coalition partners - Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan People's Party - against each other and could become the reason for another showdown between the two parties in days ahead.
Sources in the PPP said discontent in the party's Punjab chapter was gradually growing as PML-N government was not treating them well and PPP MPAs felt themselves pushed to the wall, at least in the matters pertaining to the functioning of the Punjab government.
Since walking out of the coalition government at the federal level, the PML-N had been considering the PPP as excess baggage and that was the reason they were meted step-motherly treatment, be it the allocation of job quotas or fulfilment of other commitments made to them. Sources privy to the developments taking place on Punjab front informed that the PML-N had tacitly linked the fulfilment of their commitments with PPP in Punjab to the scrapping of controversial 17th Amendment and Article 58(2)B.
The sources in PML-N informed that in the recent past the party leaders had persistently raised the issue of PPP as their coalition partner in the Punjab government and demanded of the party high command to show them (PPP lawmakers) the door as keeping them along in the government was damaging the public image of the PML-N.
On the other hand PPP Punjab leadership had their own reservations against the PML-N and on a number of occasions they had raised the issue of their party men being ignored by the Punjab government. The sources further said PML-N leadership had come out with categorical commitment many times that they would keep PPP part of the Punjab government but practically they were keeping them at bay as Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was calling the shots.
The sources further said PML-N wanted compliance on the commitments made with them on constitutional reforms first and then they would go ahead with expansion of the Punjab cabinet and allocation of the 60 percent quota in jobs and in the district and tehsil level committees for monitoring of the functioning of the departments at basic tier of governance.