The airstrike by two missiles, presumed to have been fired from an American drone, that killed 18 people, including foreign al-Qaeda fighters, in Pakistan's tribal regions has led to predictable uproar. Taleban leaders have threatened retaliatory attacks against America. Anti-government militants say they will break off peace talks with Islamabad. Yousef Raza Gilani, the Prime Minister, has condemned the airstrikes as “wrong” and “unfair” while claiming no knowledge of their source. Meanwhile, as inflation surges, the fiscal deficit grows and Pakistan's currency loses 12 per cent of its value in five months, a Cabinet minister announced yesterday that power shortages had become so serious that clocks would be moved forward an hour and shops ordered to close at 9pm to save electricity.

Once again, Pakistan is racked by two perennial dangers: separatist religious extremism and economic collapse. Yet the country's politicians were preoccupied yesterday instead with the squabbles and vendettas that have discredited almost all attempts to revive democracy, and repeatedly thwarted plans to get the country moving. On Tuesday nine ministers from the Muslim League loyal to Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister overthrown by President Musharraf, stormed out of the coalition Government. They accused the Pakistan People's Party, headed by Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Zardari, of failing to follow through on promises to reinstate the 60 judges dismissed by Mr Musharraf. They promised they would still support the coalition, but it is clear that atavistic animosities between these feuding leaders have sabotaged the proposals for a new democratic beginning. Only six weeks since Pakistan emerged from an election campaign marked by violence and assassination, hopes for national unity and a more popular alternative to military rule have been dashed.

As always, narrow personal and factional interest has triumphed over national need. Mr Sharif is fixated on humbling the man who ousted him, and is counting of the reinstatement of the former Chief Justice to declare Mr Musharraf's re-election as President invalid. Mr Zardari, his rivals insist, is stalling on the return of judges who might be ready to strike out the amnesty granted to him and other PPP leaders on corruption charges. And the beleaguered Mr Musharraf is suspected of engineering the split in order to weaken his opponents, cling to office and invoke the support of the Americans and British who are worried by the new Government's appeasement of tribal militants and al-Qaeda leaders.

It is certainly true that the West has not been impressed by the coalition's attempt to buy off trouble in the tribal lands, or its readiness for a ceasefire that would be used, as it was in the past, by militants to regroup and step up cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Far more important, however, are Western hopes that the return of democracy will mean a Government able and ready to tackle Pakistan's huge economic and social challenges: the faltering economy, rising inflation, religious extremism and the disastrous neglect of education. Bickering will only rekindle popular disgust with all Pakistan's politicians and may prompt another ambitious military man to stage a coup. The despairing cycle needs to be broken. It is time for the men of Pakistan's Government to govern.