ANYONE with a modicum of sense to his credit could have told the nation's military saviours that they should have done this a long time ago. To give credit where it is due, Sardar Mumtaz Bhutto, fairly early on in the tenure of this rising monument to confusion, had forcefully argued in a couple of newspaper articles that it was in the military's interest to open lines of communication with 'clean' politicians.

If faltering memory serves me right, this term was his contribution to what was then a stalled national debate. After full eight and a half months the military government, assailed on all sides by cries of failure, has finally seen the wisdom of embarking upon a course that elementary political sense might have dictated that it follow right at the beginning. Still, no point in quarrelling with small mercies.

One or more fundamental points need to be clarified, however. Since we are a nation of monkeys forever looking for redeemers and saviours where nothing but disaster lurks, it is scarcely surprising if on the morrow of October 12 there was no shortage of people who saw heroic overtones in the leading figures of this government. None of Marilyn Monroe's several honeymoons could have been as ecstatic as the one General Musharraf enjoyed in those halcyon days. Whither are they fled?

Several wan moons later it should be abundantly clear even to the congenitally benighted that at this juncture what the country needs above anything else is a revolving door round which the military can swirl and on the rebound head straight for its barracks. The military need not leave a vacuum behind. The political space it vacates can be filled with the 'clean' figures of military mythology - people like Mian Azhar who, among a descending order of scoundrels and charlatans, are the least tainted by the shenanigans of the past 15 years.

Certainly stars in uniform who may have acquired a taste for power, and the nominated brigade which can only hope to enter the portals of power through the back door, will strongly oppose any such move. But then from such elements nothing better is to be expected. They should not be given a veto over the country's future.

Reform and renewal are dead concepts. We have seen how of much of reform has been delivered in the last eight months. Time now to bury these illusions and move ahead. There has to be a political revival with the military's voice heard on important national matters. Do we need a national security council for this purpose? This idea is beloved of the military but it will not work because as we have seen in the past any dichotomy of power sows the seeds of political instability. Far better to have a French-style president who embodies in his person the military and political points of view. The prime minister could be his nominee or at least work under his wings. Other experiments have been tried; all have failed.

The Ayubian experiment of a powerful presidential system was a disaster. The ZAB and Sharif models of powerful prime ministers led directly to the imposition of military rule. The Eighth Amendment model of a powerful president and a representative prime minister served only to spread strife in the political arena. It's time to move on to something more stable and enduring. With someone safe like Mian Azhar as prime minister, how about General Pervez Musharraf as the country's first Gaullist president?

Will this be a perfect democracy? Of course not. But then this hybrid solution is the only thing allowed by the prevailing circumstances. The military cannot be forced back to barracks. When it decides to withdraw, it will do so itself, on its own steam and propelled by a sense of its own necessity.

But this trick - that of withdrawal - must be pulled off for the larger good of the country. Politics is not the military's cup of tea. Furthermore, involvement in politics is the surest way to compromise the military's professionalism. Would any Pakistani want that? Do we want the Pakistan army to turn into the Thai or Indonesian armies, fit only for mounting coup d'etats? If the military is the last bulwark of national stability and survival, as the prevailing wisdom in Pakistan affirms, that's all the more reason to preserve its elan and fighting spirit. If these are lost, what remains?

Conducting an orderly retreat (ask anyone from staff college) is the most difficult of all military operations. Getting out of the quagmire the country is in will not therefore be easy. But there is no other way out. So General Musharraf's meetings with 'clean' politicians is a good beginning. But if these meetings are not merely to become grist for the regime's propaganda mills, they must form part of a game plan which leads to a political restoration. Otherwise they will make no sense.

But what is the military waiting for? Today, despite everything, it can still dictate the national agenda and make the politicians who are available dance to its tune. Tomorrow will be too late. The military should beware of the example of the traders. In the halcyon days after October 12 which trader would have had the audacity to challenge the military? It is the ineptitude of the government over the past eight months which has emboldened them to throw a gauntlet to the ill-considered tax survey drive. Keeping this in mind, it is to the military's advantage to start thinking seriously of a political withdrawal before public frustration with its rule mounts.

But on whom to dump the burden of civilian rule? On who else but the troopers of Pakistan's permanent King's Party, the Muslim League, a willing accessory down the years to every adventurist dispensation? Once again the Muslim League is proving true to form, the champions who pass for its leaders virtually panting to be used as the military deems fit. Eight months ago they were in a similar state of beatific anticipation. A sign then from General Musharraf's little finger would have brought them scurrying to his side, in the process disposing of the Sharifs unceremoniously. But the military was too full of itself and too ready to take everything for granted. So that golden moment was lost.

But it is still not too late. With their misjudged clamour the Sharifs are writing themselves into the history books while the stalwarts of their party are looking for other scripts on which to perform. The only question is, is the military capable of writing a new script? Can it sense which way the wind is blowing? Putting its ears to the ground, can it hear the approaching beat of distant horses?

Can the military also fulfil certain other essential requirements? Can it put a muzzle on its principal spin-master, whose vested interests are not tied to the revival of democracy? When General Musharraf met the first batch of clean-laundered politicos, Javed Jabbar, who is not programmed to keep quiet, was quick to chime in with the comment that these politicos not only belonged to different political parties but were also influential personalities in their own right. Note the attempt to draw a line under the political parties. If some of the confusion besetting the paths of this government is to be dissipated, this kind of smart thinking will have to be suppressed.

General Haider will have to be persuaded to put aside his blunderbuss (the first weapon, in any case, which should be confiscated in any drive to recover illegal weapons) and asked to reconsider the virtues of announcing mock battles which are followed by all-too-real retreats. Serious thought will have to be given to confining General Naqvi to quarters who in the name of his various schemes has spread more confusion across the land than any other individual. General Amjad of NAB presents a more formidable problem. He is presiding over something which began as a hymn to the rising sun but which has ended up being one of the all-time great Pakistani disasters. But he is a serious personality who takes his work seriously. Among mortals, said Euripides, second thoughts are always best. Getting General Amjad to think second thoughts cannot be an easy undertaking.Through thick and thin, however, let us keep one thing in mind. Taking issue with a government does not mean questioning the country's validity. When France fell in 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force was driven back to the Channel by the advancing Germans, Englishmen did not despair of England. They cursed Chamberlain for not being up to their country's need in the hour of its greatest danger. There is no reason to despair of Pakistan which, God willing, will find its place in the sun sooner or later, but every reason to wish to kick its Chamberlains into the departing sea.