The cricketer’s dramatic rise to and treacherous fall from power is not an exceptional phenomenon. It is essentially a replay of the fate of successive protégés of a short-sighted military establishment with its constitutionally flawed designs.

The diplomat played a pivotal role in drafting a settlement that would have rendered the LoC just a line on the map.

The document ignores the fact that all aspects of traditional security must be subjected to economic imperatives. This means economic cooperation, and resolution of 'core issues' through patient negotiations – not a reiteration of the earlier strategy which has not worked.

A sweeping plan to require government licensing of journalistic activity and ban the “bringing into ridicule the head of state, or members of armed forces, or judicial or legislative organs of the state” will sound the death knew of press freedom.

The Imran Khan government had made a third attempt to get the Chief of Army Staff reappointed for three more years, offering him a de-facto extension of tenure.

The Maulana has dared to challenge an authoritarian system, but the fate of democracy will remain in doldrums until all democratic forces mobilise the downtrodden people of Pakistan.

It is about time the genuine complaints of people are heard and women and minorities' rights safeguarded.

The civil rights movements provides an opportunity to pursue the mainstreaming of the troubled FATA region in a democratic fashion with the involvement of its people.