Matiullah Jan I love Pakistan and its soldiers who lay down their lives for our motherland. We loved it back in 1965 and even in 1971 as part of this 1947 Love Story. We the people have been going in circles though. Our back and forth journey between dictatorship & democracy seems to have left us tired and breathless somewhere in the middle - hybrid dispensation. But it not even hybrid anymore. Those touting this arrangement as hybrid are only misleading the public. In a typical hybrid system the military is not a major power share holder and it pretends to be taking orders from the civilian authority. That pretence is gone. This is a mutated and more dangerous form of dictatorship where a prime minister is merely a prime witness to decisions of war and peace between two nuclear neighbours. Thanks to our airforce which roared more in the skies and less in the press conferences that saved our face with pride. There is a ceasefire on external front with India but the war within goes on. Even though this war brought all rivals together (a political necessity too) to fight for the country’s and in fact their own political existence. Ironically, in supporting the war to preserve freedom the victims of the-war-within knowingly surrendered their’s to the perpetrators. War-born patriotism is a necessary evil to bow down to even for victims of the state. But loyalty & patriotism is not a one way traffic between the government and its subjects. The loyalty to the constitution is the actual loyalty to the state and hence the need for ensuring Independent judiciary, free media and supreme parliament. Now that the state and its subjects are on the same page against the enemy, it is the government and its subordinate military that now ought to prove its loyalty to the constitution (state). They must let the top judges independently decide the matters pending before them in accordance with their oath. Media will have to tell the truth. Politicians and political parties have to be left alone to compete each other with ideologies and manifestoes. The supremacy and respect of the Parliament needs to be restored through early and fair decisions by the dithering election tribunals. These have to be reconstituted with serving high court judges only and this can happen even now within the parameters of the current law. Unfortunately, like in the past, the current dictatorial dispensation also wants a solution but not without constitutionalising its unconstitutional acts. Govt’s legal kites seem to be at it again, preparing to pounce on the decaying corpse of our democracy to carry forward the legacy of the likes of Sharifuddin Pirzada and SM Zafar’s who brought 8th and 17 constitutional amendments to constitutionally protect Gen Zia & Gen Musharraf for the coups of 1977 & 1999 respectively. The 26th amendment has done much more harm to the constitution than the above two amendments which only protected the martial law orders of the two dictators. While Nov 03 PCO too resulted in historic conviction of Gen Musharraf the 26th amendment has empowered the military establishment to replace governments and reshuffle judges without MLOs or PCOs. And it is in this new abnormal that the people and their elected representatives have to reclaim their lost space and freedom. The hot-line and the ceasefire are working with Indian prime minister Modi but what about our own former prime minister Imran Khan. Shouldn’t there be a ceasefire with very own people, majority of whom clearly accept the jailed Khan as their undisputed prime minister. In the recent war Pakistan army has been the undisputed winner on both military and political fronts. But so was Field Marshall Ayub Khan back in 1965 and then too our real eagles turned the tables in Pakistan’s favour. And what happened six years later is part of history that is still not completely told. As a nation we seem to be sleep walking in circles without realising that there is no destination without a direction and moving to and from between civilian and military rules is an aimless journey. Destination is decided by national political leadership who can always be criticised and corrected by its citizens without the fear of being labelled as unpatriotic and disloyal to the country. In democracy there is no one-man-rule. The possibility of change of a political government through genuine political means at anytime before the constitutional term expires tempts the desperate public to struggle for their rights. But under one-man-rule public is not even tempted to struggle especially when that one man has his finger on the trigger. It is this lack of urge to struggle for rights that leaves the public too demotivated to fight against external enemies as well. In such a situation war is fought not by nation but army and only in case of victory the nation has to celebrate but defeat as they say is orphan. The kind of tension we face on our internal political borders we need to have a hotline and ceasefire established immediately. There is no time or need to celebrate victory or hold lengthy pressers in this war against our own people. This is the best time to make amends with the people, politicians and a party that has been wronged by a non-system in an unprecedented manner. While the nation is too happy and proud over its glorious victory against India it is willing to forget and forgive the constitutional transgressions. Whatever economic and diplomatic successes that are claimed to have been achieved by the current dispensation should and cannot be undone. Let the people of Pakistan decide the fate of this country through an election free of manipulation and engineering. A new election commission with some integrity must be appointed and leave the rest to the people of Pakistan. No doubt horse should not be changed in the middle of a war but then a horse too has no right to select its riders.