The provincial leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has restricted itself to a limited criticism of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (Nawaz) on its allegation against the presidency for malicious propaganda against Nawaz Sharif.
The second tier of command in the PPP provincial leadership, including President of PPP Women Wing Sajida Mir, Information Secretary Dr Fakhruddin and others took the PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal to the task, and avoided passing any comment directly against Nawaz Sharif.
However, the PPP provincial leadership criticised Ahsan Iqbal for breaching the mutual trust, and warned the PML-N leadership of another Saif-ur-Rehman in the shape of Ahsan Iqbal. Ahsan Iqbal took a strong exception of allegations against Nawaz Sharif and held the presidency responsible for it while issuing an ultimatum of 48 hours to the PPP to mend its way or else.
According to the PPP circles, the hidden hands were active against the spirit of Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by late Benazir Bhutto with Nawaz Sharif, and urged the PML-N leadership to be cautious about all such efforts.
It may be noted that only one of the PML-N ally Ghulam Mustafa Khar has alleged directly that President Asif Ali Zardari, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan for running a cell in the presidency to malign the PML-N leadership. Independent political circles believe that the ongoing row between the two coalition partners is likely to be further fuelled with any direct allegation from top leadership from either side.