Sharif's balancing act

Having flirted for some days with the idea of launching a 'revolution' Nawaz Sharif seems to be heading back to his party's time-tested mode of keeping political fight with the federal government to the confines of parliament.
On Thursday, as he addressed a news conference, after paying condolence call on President Zardari, he was rather circumspect in the use of words, conspicuously missing to mention 'revolution' - though he kept pushing for re-composition of the Abbottabad commission in addition to asking for two more such bodies to investigate the PNS Mehran incident and murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad.
At the Presidency he is reported to have traded some barbs with the president which, paradoxically, put the two together on the same platform - in that if PPP has joined hands with Sharifs' nemesis, that's the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, the PML (N) too has embraced the renegades. Reportedly, the two also recalled the days when their parties had vowed to struggle together through thick and thin for the revival of democratic order in Pakistan.
"Our options are open and we will make every sacrifice for the sake of parliament and its resolutions", said Nawaz Sharif when asked to make comment on reports of collective resignations by the PML (N) parliamentarians. Since revolution brooks no parliament and nor immediate elections the PML (N) chief's thoughts must have morphed to get closer to realities that obtain today in Pakistan. No wonder then the PML (N) would like to confine its protestations within the perimeters of a working democracy instead of rocking the boat rather hard with a view to inviting the Pindiwals.
Whether the nation is ready for a revolution or not it's difficult to say at this point in time. But if our political history is any guide one would instead find tanks rolling into the Capital should the chaos and anarchy grip the country. With province of Punjab - that's more than half of Pakistan and is likely to gain additional clout under the devolution plan triggered by the 18th Amendment - in their hands the Sharifs asking for political change makes no sense.
Yes, the people of Pakistan are disgusted with the performance of the elected representatives, not only in the federal legislatures but also in provincial assemblies, and would like the change but through an electoral exercise. In the present circumstances, however, that is not seen to be the likely case. Both, the PPP in the Centre and PML (N) in Punjab, are strongly entrenched in their power centres with no known reason for them to upset the political applecart.
Playing his cards quite astutely, President Zardari has pre-empted all possible schemes to drive his party out of power. May be we differ with his game plan and its moral dimension, but that's what happens in politics. Of course, a concerned citizen of Pakistan would like to contest the legitimacy of a failed government that the present one is certainly is, and ask why not early elections as envisaged by the Constitution.
But that is not being foreseen given the incumbents are more interested in retaining power than to go for the 'gamble' of fresh election. There is no plausible argument to contest the point that Nawaz Sharif and his party men would like to retain power and rule the country's biggest province than to throw it to the winds - irrespective of how furiously he is seen to be tilting at the windmills.