For most of Pakistan’s history, the security state has divided the country into two convenient species: the obedient and the dangerous.

The terminology changes with geography, ethnicity and political need. “Good” Taliban and “bad” Taliban. “Good” Baloch and “bad” Baloch. Patriotic Pashtuns and foreign-sponsored Pashtuns. Heroic Kashmiris and suspicious Kashmiris. More recently, acceptable supporters of Imran Khan and unacceptable ones — the former frightened into apology, the latter insufficiently broken to surrender.

“Good” has never meant peaceful, democratic or law-abiding. It means useful.

A good Pakistani mistakes submission for patriotism and silence for unity. A bad Pakistani asks the questions the state cannot survive: Who rules? By what right? For whose benefit?

A good Pakistani mistakes submission for patriotism and silence for unity. A bad Pakistani asks the questions the state cannot survive: Who rules? By what right? For whose benefit?

The present military order now faces a grave shortage. It is running out of good Pakistanis.

The Baloch have grievances. The Pashtuns have memories. The poor have electricity bills. The landless have discovered that patriotic speeches cannot be paid as rent. Journalists ask questions. Judges occasionally remember they are judges. Imran Khan’s supporters retain the dangerous belief that elections should involve voters.

And now Kashmiris have committed the ultimate ideological offence: they have demanded rights from Pakistan instead of merely demanding them from India.

The national emergency is obvious.

Everyone has become political.

The unrest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir has exposed the fraud with unusual clarity. For decades, Islamabad displayed Azad Jammu and Kashmir as the serene opposite of Indian-administered Kashmir: peaceful where India was militarized, represented where India repressed, grateful where India provoked resistance.

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It was one of the........

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