BREAKING: PAKISTAN'S GOVERNING COALITION COLLAPSES

BBC: Pakistan PM loses vital coalition partner as MQM quits

Pakistan's MQM party says it is leaving Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's coalition to join the opposition.

The move will deprive Mr Gilani of his majority in parliament.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the second largest party in the coalition, withdrew two ministers from the federal cabinet last week.

Mr Gilani denied there his government was in danger of collapsing. "I don't see any crisis," he said, speaking on television after the announcement.

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the government is now scrambling to find new partners, but that without them, new elections are likely.

Update: CNN:

The decision leaves the PPP-led government that came to power in 2008 with 147 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly, where members serve up to five-year terms. Anwar said the MQM doesn't want the government to fail, but "The government is failing itself by its own deeds."

UPDATE #2: THE AGE:

An administration that took power less than three years ago following elections has now lost its majority in parliament and faces possible collapse if the opposition unites to pass a vote of no-confidence.

"We have decided to sit on opposition benches because the government has not done anything to address the issues we have been protesting about," MQM stalwart Faisal Sabzwari told AFP.

MQM has long been at odds with unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari's PPP over political violence in Karachi, tax reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund, corruption and crippling inflation.

... All eyes will now turn to Pakistan's main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, that would need to support any possible parliamentary vote of no-confidence.

"It is their moral duty now to prove their majority in the national assembly," PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said of the government.

"The prime minister should take fresh vote of confidence from the parliament," he said.

Political analyst Hasan Askari said: "The government runs into serious problems with the exit of MQM... The basic issue for the government now is survival."

... Troubled relations between Sharif's party and the MQM gives the government breathing space of at least three to four weeks, analysts estimate, to stitch together a new majority.

"The government will try to win over small groups so you'll see lots of politicking," said Askari.

One of those parties set to be wooed could be Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUIF), the country's most prominent religious party that took seven lawmakers out of government on December 14 after Gilani sacked one of its ministers.

THIS IS JUST MORE PROOF THAT PAKISTAN IS A CENTRAL PART OF THE PROBLEM.

TO WIN WW4, WE NEED A PRO-WEST MILITARY JUNTA THERE - ASAP.

YES: THE SURVIVAL OF THE WEST, OF THE FREE WORLD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PAKISTANI DEMOCRACY.

ADDENDUM:

JUST AS ISLAMIST TURKEY PREVENTED US FROM USING THE HAMMER & ANVIL STRATEGY IN IRAQ, ISLAMIST PAKISTAN IS PREVENTING US FROM USING THE HAMMER & ANVIL STRATEGY IN AFGHANISTAN.

NO COINCIDENCE.

NOR THAT AQ KHAN HELPED IRAN, LIBYA AND NORTH KOREA.

THERE IS NOT A SINGLE MUSLIM NATION IN THE WORLD THAT AIDS THE FREE WORLD UNAMBIGUOUSLY.

NOT TURKEY OR EGYPT OR JORDAN OR KUWAIT OR QATAR OR INDONESIA.

GEE: I WONDER WHY THAT COULD BE!?!?!? COULD IT BE THE ULTIMATE INCOMPATIBILITY OF ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY?

YES.