SOMEONE has called for an early general election. Someone we don’t really have much trust in. It is ‘natural’ for many of us here to dismiss his talk as the roar of a perpetually dangerous simpleton who kind of monopolises naïveté.

The demand is found to be unpalatable in a country that, to put it mildly, doesn’t quite have an ideal functioning democracy. This country overshoots the target by some distance.

Indeed, by some measures, the type of democracy we are practising in our beloved homeland right now would be placed on a plane much higher than your usual ideal democracy. Where else would we find a sitting minister forced to divide his time between his ministerial functions and encounters with the trial courts? Where else do you get to see a minister doubling as an accused, refusing to resign for the greater good of democracy?

An early election could be a much-needed stopover for the people to gather their thoughts before they trudge on the road there’s no escape from.

The kind of scenes we have been able to enact at the raw age of 70 would dwarf the most established, ideal systems put together by other countries. We are specialists in our own kind of democratic system – and on that count, all those adventurers and dull crusaders who have over time invested in an indigenous model, our own little kingdom, stand vindicated.

Like all good things, our little supra-ideal system comes with its own directions for use and its own minor clarifications. Some of us have been heard saying that, while Ishaq Dar may embody our aspirations for distinction, right at this moment he may have his own issues to settle.

For one, the futuristic minister is thought by many to be too involved with the legal cases against him at present to spare any time for his job as finance minister. Not to mention the extra sentiment he has to put in at various fora as a well-wisher of the family he openly owes allegiance to.

The theory is that he might be better able to fulfil his more urgent duties as a member of the coterie as opposed to a member of the cabinet. Mr Dar, however, is not resigning, in order (as we all remember by rote now) to save and secure democracy, which (experience has taught us) requires us to be patient and navigate mindlessly through sea after sea of confusion.

There’s a lot of confusion out there as Mian Nawaz Sharif — disqualified but not quite disposed of — walks ahead looking for his own version of justice. He is moving forward, sometimes with the daredevilry of Bruce Willis’ character John McClane in the Die Hard film franchise, and at other times with the resignation of a lamb about to be put to the sword. Through various moods and phases, he has so far managed to defy the deadline set for his eventual and final demise. Yet he has had little influence when it comes to providing relief to the people who have been kept hostage by Pakistan’s brand of tension-filled politics.

Signs of distress are all around. Journalists who want to gauge the extent of uncertainty caused by the removal of a prime minister and the ad hoc arrangements put in place since come up with far from reassuring assessments. There is a serious lack of direction at various levels of government inside the country, even while a stand-in prime minister is able to spell out our resolve to the international community at the UN with some gusto.

By some accounts, not all the initiatives undertaken by the Sharif government can run with the same old fervour now that Mr Sharif has been ousted and his party is faced with an uncertain future. Political disputes, on the other hand, are resurfacing with a severity akin to a political climate in the run up to a general election. And yet, so many here choose to boo the man who has asked for a snap election.

There are problems. Not least of them is the issue of electoral reforms that have been delayed — why and at whose behest being two pertinent questions that must be asked of parliament and the government. That is where the national focus must now be, even if the election is going to be held on schedule next year. But to cite lack of electoral law reforms as a reason why an early election cannot be held is a little unfair. The primary aim should be to pull the people out of their current state of uncertainty. The laws will continue to evolve, in the next term of the assembly if not the current one.

The biggest dispute arising out of the 2013 election has to be resolved. Along the way, it has been complicated by Panama and some other, comparably minor elements — but the parties remain the same, by and large. It is the Sharifs versus Imran Khan, which obviously leads to projections about who is likely to gain and by how much in the event of a snap election. While these estimates of success at the polls are all legitimate, some thought must be given to the effects all this political wrangling and lack of resolution on some basic political questions has had on the minds of Pakistanis.

It could well be that this country has to go through this experience of intense, relentless, round-the-clock politicking. A general election may add to this intensity, but that could also be of some relief to people subjected to sensational, unending debate without answers. The election could be a stopover — a much-needed one — for the people to gather their thoughts before they trudge on the road there’s no escape from.

Let’s forget for a moment which party will gain or lose ground. Let’s for once concentrate on the proposal, and not so much on the person behind it. Let’s call for a general election as early as possible.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2017