MOB violence, like the storming of the police prisoners van and vigilante ‘justice’ like that witnessed on PIA flight 370 only push us towards anarchy. The writ of the state is weak and its institutions are still poorly formed. Anarchic conditions will further erode these.

All the desirable outcomes we seek can come from building strong institutions. And strong institutions are built on the bedrock of constitutionalism, under a continuous democratic order and an open political system.

Today, and despite it having been subverted under periods of authoritarian rule, the only secular document on which this deeply divided nation still has a consensus is the 1973 Constitution. The democratic order too, has been missing for the greater part of the country’s existence.

Understandably therefore, the institutions are weak and easily commandeered by the elite. Yet Pakistan has an open political system with 11 major political parties and any number of minor ones.

Rich, poor, urban, rural, educated and less educated, men and women, religious and not so religious, honest and corrupt, the parliamentarians of Pakistan truly represent a cross section of society, drawn from the people of Pakistan, from across all its geographic regions.

Any Pakistani can join a political party of their choice and play their role in making a difference. And even as politico-democratic institutions are weak, the military and the civil service bureaucracy are highly developed — 170 year old colonial institutions — that have enjoyed a permanent position of power and hegemony over this new state, most times stunting its political development.

The answer therefore must lie in the continued evolution of the still flawed politico-democratic system, not in pushing an anarchist agenda.

That will only disintegrate, not consolidate the few gains we have made, and in the event of their disintegration, the journey back to a democratic order, if it can be made at all, will be a long and arduous one. And only after that journey has been completed will institutional development be able to resume, taking us right back to the start.

All the desirable outcomes we seek can come from building strong institutions, not by pinning our hopes on false messiahs, or by seeking shortcuts nor indeed by meting out vigilante justice.

Moazzam Husain

Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 20th , 2014