THE 1973 Constitution has been amended 22 times but no government has ever attempted to correct the systematic anachronism in our federal structure or to redress the provincial grievance.

There is no denying the fact that the current government has failed to address many issues,but to hold democracy responsible for this failure is to confuse the form with the content.

Expectations from democracy in Pakistan have been highly and unrealistically exaggerated. At this time in our history, we need greater societal cohesion, not fragmentation. We cannot afford new controversies revisiting the old ethnic and linguistic chasms. We need surgical remedies to root out the causes of instability.

“Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future” (John F. Kennedy).

BAKHTAWAR TALPUR Hyderabad