There is a moment, chilling in its clarity, when you realise that a state is no longer run by rules but by moods. In Pakistan, we have crossed that line. Decisions of immense national consequence are made in closed rooms by actors not named in the Constitution. Laws are applied with surgical precision against opponents but with surgical avoidance when friends are in trouble. We have normalised the abnormal: ruling without rules.

The rule of law is not an ornamental democratic principle; it is the oxygen of any functioning polity. It is what turns power from raw force into legitimate authority. And it is not democracy's exclusive property — history offers examples of authoritarian systems, such as Singapore or pre-reform China, that understood the economic and political value of predictable, impartial enforcement of laws. Without it, a country can neither inspire confidence at home nor attract credibility abroad.

Investors — foreign or domestic - are not swayed by patriotic slogans or glossy brochures. They study the terrain for a different kind of security:........

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