The recovery in Pakistan is much too fragile to allow a dispute over the reinstatement of judges to disrupt the workings of an elected government. The withdrawal of Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) from the coalition arrangement on Monday does not remove the Pakistan People's Party's right to rule. But it does reveal an astonishing indifference about where the country is headed.

Despite Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's optimism, the dispute will fester--with serious consequences for the people. Prices are rising. City dwellers face frequent power cuts. Suicide bombers continue to seek targets. Social unrest is brewing. A new finance minister will have to put together the budget next month. The old one has quit, along with eight PML-N colleagues. Incredibly, Sharif maintains that the 'most important issue' in the country's 60-year history is to restore the judges President Pervez Musharraf sacked last year. His self-serving insistence has been compounded by PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari temporising. Zardari, who wants qualifications built into the judicial restoration issue, has his own interests to protect.

Old ghosts continue to haunt the two leaders. Sharif has not forgiven Musharraf for ousting him in a coup and throwing him in prison in 1999. A ruling by a reinstated chief justice that Musharaff's election last year was unconstitutional would be sweet revenge, and offer Sharif a buffer if he became prime minister again. Zardari is less forthright about the return of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who gave him no relief from detention on corruption and other charges from 1997 to 2004. Musharraf, skilled in exploiting his adversaries' differences, will love to seize the chance to work out a bigger role, possibly in an understanding with Zardari that might include pro-Musharraf parties replacing the PML-N as PPP's coalition partner.

It falls on Zardari's shoulder to avert a collapse of the coalition. If he fails, the question would be asked more loudly than before: Will Pakistan ever be ready for civilian electoral rule? The outlook seems bleak. February's general election--relatively fair and open in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination--might turn out to be a false dawn. While the judicial restoration question preoccupies the chattering class, the old dangers the country has been facing remain. In the frontier areas, militants continue to find sanctuary and increase their attacks on Afghanistan. Extremism threatens to seep into the body politic as public disaffection mounts. These are only some of the grim realities that require the government's undivided attention.