ISLAMABAD: The PML-N is hundred per cent sure that Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s attempts to destabilise its provincial government are on the order of the central PPP leadership.

“No drumbeater would ever stir himself into action unless directed by his master,” a senior Punjab government leader told The News in a harsh tone. However, a source close to the governor said Salmaan Taseer, being a PPP cardholder, acts as per the party policy and his constitutional duty.

“What is illegal or unconstitutional if he points out through formal letters to the chief minister irregularities being committed by the Punjab government,” he asked. He said the PPP was there to fully defend the governor if the PML-N or the Punjab government became “unreasonable” against him. He said Salmaan Taseer, being a representative of the president of Pakistan, was answerable to him.

A PML-N leader said no attack would emanate from the Punjab government on the governor or the PPP. “Whatever we are doing and will do in future is meant to defend ourselves against the onslaught,” he said.

He pointed fingers at President Asif Zardari and charged that the governor’s actions and harangue against the Punjab government had the blessings of the presidenscy to keep the PML-N administration on its toes all the time.

“We will be telling the governor his constitutional duty through our response to his letters,” the PML-N leader said, adding the barrage of such communications was meant to have a case at hand to justify sending the provincial government home when the confrontation aggravated.

He said two draft replies to the governor’s letters had been prepared and sent to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in China for approval. In the meantime, a section of the PML-N has resented Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah’s outburst against Salmaan Taseer. It says that instead of hammering the governor for his wild attack against the media, Sanaullah unnecessarily agitated another issue against him. This may provide an opportunity to the PML-N’s opponents to say that Sanaullah needlessly peeped into the personal life of the governor.

The PML-N leader said the objective behind the governor’s bid to keep the Punjab political field hot was also to tell his party not to be demoralised and that the PPP was a force to be reckoned with in the province and could come to power any time in the Punjab. “At the same time, these are intended to please his master.”

The frequency of love letters from the governor to the Punjab chief minister considerably increased after leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan subjected President Zardari to severe attack in a speech in the National Assembly. This demolished the bonhomie, created by Nawaz Sharif’s dinner with Zardari, and the reinforced impression, which followed after the feast, that the PML-N will continue to play the role of a friendly opposition.

Subsequently, Nawaz Sharif’s hard-hitting interview to Geo further enforced this impression. Both parties continue to exert pressure on each other in their own way. Taseer serves as a tool to slam the PML-N.

Some people believe that this love-hate relationship between the PPP and the PML-N will continue for quite some time and tension will not rise to the breaking point. They say both sides know that too much deterioration in the situation would be equally disastrous for both.