using it to weaken Zardari. His choice for his party's presidential candidate is a judge who was loyal to him during his own scuffle with the judiciary a decade ago. Amazingly, Mr Sharif could not trust anyone in his party for presidential candidacy and chose a retired judge and a retired bureaucrat – both not members of the party – as party nominees. No solace for party stalwart Javed Hashmi, whose bid for presidency who quietly vetoed by his boss. These are the ways of our feudal democracy. It is such a hopeless system that even a businessman like Mr Sharif ended up becoming another feudal lord.
While politicians squabble, our biggest stock exchange in Karachi, which was one of the most profitable in Asia for six years to 2007, nosedived to such an extent that regulators had to intervene and "freeze" it for the first time in sixty years, an unusual move reminiscent of Soviet-style management. This was the only way to stop sending the entire economy into a tailspin. The world is breathtakingly watching this drama unfold in Pakistan and can't believe that a nuclear-armed nation with talented people and great potential can be so misgoverned.
We have almost reached a stage where we are apparently unable to stop covert and overt foreign interference inside the country, where some misguided insurgent "leaders" from our country are willing to go on foreign payroll, where Pakistani flags flutter with unprecedented intensity in Indian-controlled Kashmir and we can't even give political support to people there, where our American ally is bringing an Iraq- and Afghanistan-like situation to our country, complete with domestic refugees, and we can't – or are unwilling – to say no.
This is the point where drastic change invites itself in domestic politics. Here, you can safely bet that if politicians don't clean up at least some of the mess, they will invite drastic change. After all, a nuclear-armed country cannot afford to be misgoverned. Or it cannot be a nuclear-armed country.
The writer works for Geo TV.
Email: aqahmedquraishi.com