Business management is undergoing a culture change with the market contributing well over 80 per cent of the GDP. More and more corporates are opting for the best international business practices.

In the countryside, the market is eroding the tribal and feudal mode of production in agriculture that accounts for a mere 22 per cent of the GDP. Robust businesses are being run on modern lines while others are trying to move ahead with a cultural change agenda.

The market has been further strengthened by a series of economic reforms since early 1990s that has resulted in a big shift in economic power.. In economics, it is no longer the landed gentry or relatively more powerful industrial barons but the financial aristocracy that calls the shots.

A Citibank executive is the prime minister who also heads the powerful finance ministry. And the banks, with much closer links with international financial markets , are making fabulous profits. The governor of the State Bank comes either from the IMF, the World Bank or ADB after mutual consultations between the relevant IFI and the government.. Nearly 80 per cent of the bank assets are held by the domestic and foreign private sector banks. Privatisation has reduced the share of the state-owned banks which dominated the financial markers, to just over twenty per cent.

And the political support for the .finance capital is provided by President Musharraf. Market democracy is acquiring sustainability. It is also widening the space for representative democracy. The financial sector, particularly the banks have opted for a culture change with unprecedented vigour.

As in economics, politics is also undergoing a culture change. In all probability, 2007 will be an eventful year and would bring about a systemic change to suit the changing economic realities. The countrywide agitation is more about the mode of governance and the dominance of military in politics that generates social exclusion and denies level playing field to all citizens. It is not so much a question of change in faces of people in power; the core issue is the mode of governance. But, of course , the elections may bring a lot of surprises..

Somehow too many political problems are crying for solution on the eve of the second nation-wide general elections proposed to be held under President Musharraf The list includes independence of the judiciary, a sovereign parliament, military uniform, level playing field for all political players, the mode of president’s re-election and a neutral interim government to supervise free and fair elections. It would be a year packed with heavy political agenda. Many of these issues require substantive dialogue between the government and the opposition parties.

If those issues which are required to be resolved through a process of national reconciliation before the elections are not addressed, political confrontation would mount.. Given the all-round authority deficit, these national issues cannot be resolved either through conventional wisdom or traditional approaches. This has been proved by the way the reference against the Chief Justice was handled. And if more proof was needed, it has been provided by the Karachi massacre. In this politically charged mood of the nation, any effort to nip in the bud whatever is perceived by the decision makers as “mischief” turns into “a prairie fire”.

These two events, one the outcome of the other, have energised and further united the opposition and divided the ruling coalition. The MQM had to close its offices.. The countrywide strike in response to what happened on May 12 in Karachi has led to business losses of billions of rupees . Such events , if repeated will scare way the investors. It has also drawn adverse comments from the western media.

The current political agitation is qualitatively different from similar movements launched in the past. It is the lawyers community, the educated middle class and torch-bearer of democracy, which is leading the movement for independence of judiciary. The community which is working as a catalyst for change is educated, possessed with appropriate knowledge and political skills to match the best political salvoes coming out of the corridors of power. The solutions to major national problems are now coming from the civic society.

Whatever turmoil or political trouble the year 2007 may witness because of the use of muscle power, the elections are likely to end with political stability anchored more on institutions and less on individuals. The current countrywide agitation is not so much focused on the most powerful individual as the constituency he represents.

One big difference in the situation is that any political failure which, in the past, led to the military take-over will now make constitutional supremacy imperative The lack of representative democracy has been a major cause in the rise of countrywide militancy that is once again threatening to engulf Karachi.. It indicates how important level playing field for all is in politics to ensure and maintain peace.

The military uniform provides the glue that keeps the otherwise divided opposition united. But President Mushraraf is committed to the western governments to doff his uniform by the year end. It makes political dialogue and reconciliation all the more necessary for establishing a stable representative democracy.