Pakistan, Aug. 16 -- There was more experience than sentiment behind Nawaz Sharif's warning in Murree on Saturday that political differences should never harden into animosity. The former prime minister was speaking as the PML-N's electoral gains in Azad Kashmir pushed its relationship with the PPP, its partner in Islamabad, towards unusually bitter territory. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has accused the ruling party of stealing the AJK mandate and warned that the federal government's "countdown" has begun; PML-N leaders answered with taunts of their own and, regrettably, even dragged the political wounds of 1971 into an argument over regional polls.

Sharif should recognise the terrain better than most. Through much of the 1990s, political par...