Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani struggled to muster support on Monday for his government, a day after a major ally quit the ruling coalition, and threw the fate of his ruling Pakistan Peoples Party into question, The New York Times reports.

Mr. Gilani held talks with Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab Province, officials said. Mr. Sharif is the younger brother of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose support is deemed to be crucial if the government is to survive.

But officials of Mr. Sharif’s party say that they are cautiously watching the political crisis unfold and have not come to a final decision. “We will neither sink the government nor extend them our shoulder,” said Ahsan Iqbal, a legislator belonging to Pakistan Muslim League-N.

Mr. Iqbal said the crisis was of the government’s own making after two coalition partners decided to withdraw at the federal level.

Still, both departing parties, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or M.Q.M., and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal, remain in coalition with the Pakistan Peoples Party in the Sindh and Baluchistan provincial governments, leading analysts and politicians to speculate that both have left some room to maneuver.


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