Punjab chaos.

FOR over two and half months, the ongoing free-for-all in Punjab between the PML-N ruling coalition and the PTI-PML-Q alliance has been causing one constitutional crisis after another. But the way Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has used his office to stall the presentation of the provincial budget for the next fiscal year takes the cake.

The move has further diminished signs of an early resolution of the crisis in Pakistan's most populous province. It shows that the PTI-PML-Q opposition is ready to go to all lengths to bring down the present set-up and recapture power in Punjab to force early elections, no matter what the cost to the economy or people.

It is possible that the political crisis might worsen in the days ahead, unless the PML-N and its coalition partners manage to muster a simple majority of 186 members in the House in next month's by-elections on 20 provincial seats in order to remove Mr Elahi from office.

Read: Punjab sinks deeper into political 'quicksand'

The current crisis in Punjab has its roots in the successful ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister through a no-confidence vote in April, in spite of every stratagem employed by the then government to avert a defeat. The removal of the PTI government at the centre was followed by the election of Hamza Shehbaz as Punjab chief minister but only after much chaos, legal battles and violence in the provincial assembly triggered by PTI and PML-Q lawmakers, apparently on the directions of the speaker, who himself was a candidate for the top job.

The election didn't end the political turmoil in the province as the previous PTI...