THERE have been times in Pakistan’s history, however fleeting, that our formal democratic institutions approximated the ‘people’s will’. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, today we are very much on the opposite end of the spectrum.

By all accounts, the hybrid regime is about to disfigure what remains of the Constitution through the 28th amendment, or whatever they end up calling it. The ceremonial exercise known as the federal budget announcement has been delayed apparently for this purpose. Even a document largely copy-pasted for the IMF to ratify that Pakistan’s long-suffering working people will continue to be sacrificed to imperial dependencies and an oversized national security apparatus has to be held back because the other imperative is more urgent.

And what is that imperative? By all accounts, the primary objective of the amendment is to take back at least some of the powers and money devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment. Democratic struggle throughout Pakistan’s history has pivoted on cutting the unitary, bureaucratic and militarised state down to size. One can only wonder if the lot currently sitting in parliament, who have presided over the 26th and 27th........

© Dawn