AT the penultimate moment, Gen (retd) Musharraf stepped down. It is true that he has spared us much agonising by doing so, but he could have spared us past, and continuing, agonies had he done so sooner and not resorted to the extra constitutional.

Should he be forgiven the unforgivable? Absolutely. Safety lies not in dragging him through the dust but in ensuring we are not sometime later hailing yet another COAS for rescuing us from the misused powers of elected representatives.

For the Zardari Bhuttos and their party, democracy may be the best revenge. Pakistan`s citizens want democracy to be a vindication of itself. That is why the restoration of a superior judiciary that was punished for true independence and safeguarding the common weal is crucial.

Some in the new government argue that nothing speaks louder than an empty stomach. Absolutely. But would a restoration of the deposed judiciary or publicly sustaining that demand till it is met come in the way of dealing with the problems of inflation and administrative mismanagement?

The correct answer is that keeping that on the backburner rather provides due cause for agitation. The administration`s inhibitions and constraints in dealing with the economic crisis and terrorism are not to be laid at the doors of the lawyers` movement or the PML-N coalition partner`s misguided obstinacy about the issue. In any case a government has to be capable of multi-tasking!

Conventional wisdom also has it that preserving the coalition is of the essence. Why? Plurality, dissent, a shadow government and opposition are much more conducive to and characteristic of healthy democratic governance. Or is the new government scared of coming out of the protective shadow of emergency situations in the Pakistan first idiom?

Keeping the coalition going must not serve as a pretext for government camouflaging of a status quo. What matters is that party politics and opposition not be vested in a desire to dislodge in order to grab the kursi and the keys to the national exchequer.

True, maintaining public order can become problematic and confusion is the right climate for terrorists. But civil protest and activism are sent to sacrifice at the altar of law and order only by dictators and fascists. The last inciden

tally also like to preserve demos of people and street power as their party`s monopoly.

It is worth thinking about the public display that followed Gen (retd) Musharraf`s announcement. The guard of honour offered to an outgoing and admittedly disgraced president may prove less disquieting in terms of our democratic future than the insensate firing at Bilawal House, Karachi, indulgently watched by the police and where the chief minister, a veteran of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari`s party, could not or would not be heard amid `party` enthusiasts.

Perhaps the first lesson we need in our new democratic primer is revision of the fact that we have all made the same mistakes at least twice. We the public too have distributed mithai with equally misplaced enthusiasm and unbecoming indignity at every leader`s fall from power.

The president whose exit occasioned such ugly gloating was the very same man whose intrusion into civil politics was popularly hailed — such had been the PML-N`s utilisation of its heavy mandate. Leaders and functionaries of the coalition please note.