WASHINGTON, April 28: Speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain urged politicians on Wednesday not to push for a political change as it might endanger democracy. "If we look at our recent history, we can clearly see what happened each time the politicians were in a haste for change.

Democratic set-ups were replaced by non-democratic set-ups and the democratic process was pushed further back," he told a gathering of PML-Q workers in Washington. Democracy, he said, demanded "tolerance and patience" but unfortunately politicians showed little tolerance or patience while dealing with each other.

Politicians pushed for a sudden change, the speaker said, because some of them could not wait till the next elections and wanted to bring down a government soon after it assumed power.

"Yes, they succeed in doing that but does the change bring them to power? Never. Every time there's a sudden change, it pushes them further away from their power base. Instead of five years, they have to wait for 10 years or more for the next elections," said Mr Hussain.

Mr Hussain said what Pakistan needed today is not another sudden change but a sustained democracy.