SMELL the dread. Inhale the disquietude. Absorb the angst. Something rumbles on the horizon.

Welcome to the republic of fear.

The Judge demands a corpse to be strung up on D-Chowk. The Advocate ransacks a hospital and rips off oxygen masks from patients. The General warns of the malevolent designs of external and internal enemies. Violence, danger and foreboding make a frightful cocktail. And yet we sip from it.

Isolated incidents these are not. When law power collides with raw power, be afraid. Be very afraid. In this land today, this fear is percolating through the perforated arteries of the system. What is the judge, advocate and general telling us?

The death sentence handed down to former president and army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf has rocked the republic. Para 66 of the detailed judgement has ravaged the sensibilities of the republic’s citizens. The muted roar from the establishment has triggered apprehensions of greater institutional turbulence. The system is overheating.

How do you referee the referees?

The complexity of the situation is uncoiling itself like a giant anaconda.

Fact: a former army chief has been convicted of treason and sentenced to hang.

Fact: a spokesman of the armed forces has said on the record there is deep pain and anguish in his institution as a result of this verdict.

When law power collides with raw power, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Fact: a chief justice (former from today) has stated a campaign has been unleashed to defame his institution.

Fact: a current army chief does not know if he will remain in office after six months.

Fact: no one knows how the government and opposition will agree on a legislation of the army chief’s extension.

Fact: the Election Commission of Pakistan is dysfunctional in its decision-making because it is short of a chief election commissioner and two members.

Fact: the government and the opposition have failed to agree on these three appointments and there is little chance of a breakthrough.

Fact: no one knows how these appointments will happen because the law is silent.

Fact: a judge of the Supreme Court is being judged by his brother judges while the government is planning to send a complaint of another judge to the Supreme Judicial Council.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Is there then a crisis of confidence in the system? Is there a fear that the system — for all its constitutional safeguards and institutional balances — is incapable of absorbing the shocks of unpredictable conflicts? Is there, in fact, a genuine reason to despair at the fragility of a democratic consensus that we pretend we have? The veneer wears thin.

And yet near the epicentre of this seismic political activity lies the geological core of democratic opportunities. The shockwaves of the last few weeks can also trigger possibilities for strengthening the system and reversing the tide of high anxiety.

Imagine thus:

The death sentence handed down to Gen Musharraf by the three-member special court is appealed at the Supreme Court. The legal process is followed smoothly and the top court performs its constitutional duty by combing through the logic of the judgement and correcting any errors if so found. The opportunity to inject quiet calm through the instrument of the law lies with the new chief justice.

Imagine thus:

The legislation for the extension of the army chief is stitched together by the government and the opposition in parliament. This requires sober minds to sit quietly and consider the volatility of the situation. Sanity does dwell still somewhere among those elected to make sane decisions. The blabberers can keep blabbering as long as the rational representative from both sides of the aisle combine their rationality to legislate the crises away. The opportunity to inject durable stability on the civil-military front on this specific issue lies with the parliamentarians.

Imagine thus:

The appointments to the ECP are made through compromise between the government and the opposition. This requires some flexibility on the names proposed by the two sides. Progress has been achieved. There is a loose agreement that the chief election commissioner can be from the government nominees’ list and the two members from names proposed by the opposition. The quagmire is due to the government’s insistence on one name. The impasse can be broken with a bit of accommodation. The opportunity for reviving a working relationship and injecting a dose of confidence in the democratic infrastructure lies with the government.

Imagine thus:

The pain and anguish expressed by the armed forces on the sentencing of a former chief is, if needing any further elaboration, expressed privately to relevant stakeholders. Everyone reposes trust in the constitutional framework that binds us all into one republic. This framework then produces an outcome that fulfils the requirements of legality and stability. The opportunity for injecting a dose of confidence in the governing framework by dialling down on verbal muscle-flexing lies with the establishment.

We have been down this road before. That journey has not been pleasant. On the crossroads again, we can draw on the wisdom of lessons learnt and experiment with the application of generous rationality. A democratic deficit suits no one. The price for embracing this deficit is paid in lost decades and forfeited opportunities.

Ladies and gentlemen: the system is on trial; those who lord over this system are on trial; and those who benefit the most from this system are on trial. The republic dreads a guilty verdict while hoping the system will vindicate itself.

Fear can, after all, be a great motivator.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Islamabad.

Twitter: @Fahdhusain

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2019