As put by a fellow columnist, a leader can say that the system has collapsed. It sounds like an admission without holding anyone accountable. The question is whose system, which system has collapsed, and at whose hands it has collapsed. The odd political experiments and political electoral engineering surpassing those practised by us since the inception of the country could only be found in the evolutionary odyssey of African or Latin American states. We have left no system untried, oscillating between Martial Laws and authoritative Presidencies, semi-presidential, parliamentary, and quasi-parliamentary governance, and a unique hybrid rule marked by informal power sharing by military and civilian leaders, with the former at the wheel. All these forms of governance have collapsed. Why is it so? It is not difficult to find the answer.

The country has been ruled by a combination of civilian and military leaders supported by a well-trained cadre of bureaucrats. We maintained the federal nature of the country hardly up to 1954, and moved over to a unitary state by forming one bigger province of West Pakistan to maintain parity with the former East Pakistan with mala fide intentions. This backfired, not only refuelling Bengali nationalism but also estranging the smaller provinces of Sindh, KPK and Balochistan by depriving them of their political and economic autonomy. They regained their separate geographical and cultural identities when the West Pakistan province was dissolved on the unanimous demand of the political parties in July 1970.

The first general election on an adult franchise basis was held on 7........

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