PAKISTAN’S elected rulers continue to break new ground. All in the name of democracy. Petrified in turn by Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan, the Sharif brothers are hoping that their decision to render the entire country comatose by announcing four Eid holidays (read: 10) puts a dent in the preparations of the so-called Azadi march.

Perhaps it won’t matter how many people Imran Khan is able to mobilise anyway now that the federal government has invoked a special constitutional provision essentially handing over the federal capital to the army. Indeed, some observers think that the embattled PML-N has shot democracy in the foot by getting the men in khaki involved in the ongoing power wrangle.

I personally don’t see this particular decision as worrisome in and of itself. The generals have never required a constitutional mandate to descend on Islamabad, and they will not need one for a hypothetical takeover in the future.

I do, however, concur that the Sharifs’ desperation signals something about just how weak our democratic foundations are; Article 245(a) follows on the heels of the entirely draconian Protection of Pakistan Ordinance bulldozed through parliament as such bills tend to be.

We are waiting for our parties to show political sagacity.

In short, we continue to wait for our mainstream parties to demonstrate the political sagacity that democracy is supposed to nurture.

For years, principled democrats have argued that repeated and prolonged experiences with martial law have not allowed democratic institutions to develop, and that it is imperative for successive elected governments to complete their terms so as to improve the quality of politicians’ performance.

Progressives in this country have fought tooth and nail for the establishment of procedural democracy, because, as the saying goes, the worst democracy is better than the best dictatorship. This motto is tried and tested, and democrats of all persuasions can always be expected to remain true to it.

But this does not mean that there are not difficult questions that need to be answered about the formal democratic process that we maintain is the bare minimum to take this country forward.

Pakistani progressives are not alone in harbouring bittersweet feelings towards procedural democracy; it has been said many times and should never be forgotten that in the neo-liberal era there remains only the pretence of democratic choice in the political mainstream; all over the world, political parties vying for office are virtually indistinguishable in terms of social and economic policy; the market is God and the role of government is only to facilitate the untrammeled operation of the ‘invisible hand’.

Quite aside from this global quandary, we continue to be faced with an even more rudimentary problem: our mainstream political parties do not appear to want autonomy from the permanent state apparatus, notwithstanding the persistent hope that they will.

Lest the point is still not clear; political maturity in the Pakistani context simply means a minimum common agenda of keeping the ‘establishment’ out of politics. Prior to getting elected, Nawaz Sharif kept reiterating that he is a different person to the one who played second fiddle to the establishment in the 1990s (not to mention his beginnings as a blue-eyed boy of Gen Ziaul Haq).

In the year that the PML-N has been in office, there has been plenty of conjecture about differences between the ruling party and GHQ. But sadly, there is also enough evidence to suggest that there has been far from a definitive break with the men in khaki.

Supporters of the previous PPP government will argue that a definitive break is not really an option; Zardari’s biggest achievement, say the jiyalas, is precisely that he managed such a delicate balancing act, keeping the generals at arm’s length and then completing the transfer of governmental power.

In making such an argument, progressives sell themselves short. Certainly there is no point raising slogans about revolution if that option does not exist, especially now that right-populists have transformed political discourse by confiscating radical terminology from the left. But the completion of an elected government’s term in office is offset by the fact that our ‘oldest and wisest’ parties, the PPP included, have many in their ranks who do the establishment’s bidding, and therefore demean the whole democratic exercise.

It’s a delicate, ruthless affair, no doubt. We can continue to hope that our bourgeois parties will make a break with the establishment, but we should not be naïve about how much autonomy from the state security apparatus parties with such chequered histories will be able to secure. Not to mention the new players that can’t wait out a five-year term and want to achieve their ‘destiny’ by Aug 14.

A new political organisation untainted by the establishment is what the Pakistani people need. No matter how long it takes to build it.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014