Crash and burn

It seems that Pervez Musharraf was enough to hold Pakistan's ruling coalition together but the Taliban is not. Nawaz Sharif pulled his Pakistan Muslim League-N party out of the five-month-old government on Monday, blaming Asif Ali Zardari for breaking his promises. While it is unlikely to force a new election, it has caused plenty of collateral damage. The rupee tanked; judges, who were to be reinstated as part of an agreement between Sharif's and Zardari's parties are still not back in office for Zardari's own self-serving reasons as Zardari has launched his own bid for the presidency; and despite being officially banned, or perhaps because of it, the Taliban is taking aim at politicians again.