A curious duality afflicts the national scene. Those worthy souls who write learned articles for newspapers, or who hold forth at seminars and are big names in the NGO trade, are usually irrelevant when it comes to electoral politics. They lack the social roots to contest a union council election, not to mention any wider canvas.

This is not a situation conducive to equanimity of mind or temper because while these knights think they have all the answers, they are not players in the political process. This sense of powerlessness is like a canker in their souls, making them restless and embittered.

So what do they do? The more timorous or laid-back among them assume an attitude of scornful superiority towards the political class. A club you can't join is best derided. However, the more ambitious amongst this reformist crowd is always on the look out to enter political office through the backdoor. Either by way of the Senate, Pakistan's most distinguished backdoor, or by clinging to the coattails of political parties.

No political party is immune to the assault of the determined charlatan. Provided you can put on a brave front and are not overly sensitive to subtle insults, with a bit of effort you can make it to the inner sanctum of the leader. And then of course if you know something of the fawning arts, you can make yourself indispensable to him. Technology may have changed the face of the world but not the way men (and women) pursue power. No wonder, Machiavelli remains a timeless political scientist, his prescriptions for the successful exercise of power relevant even today.

Finance men and other 'technocrats' who have made it in the World Bank and the IMF, but who remain unfulfilled for not having exercised raw political power in their homeland, are always more impressed by caretaker regimes and military dictatorships than by anything with a democratic colouring. In a democracy they have no place but through the good graces of an unelected dispensation they can hope to attain high political office. Which is why high-flying members of this tribe can be seen rushing to Pakistan, keen to save the country, whenever a government falls.

Military rule is not a function of the military alone. Whole classes of collaborators have flocked to the army's standard whenever it has seized power. From Ayub Khan onwards, no military ruler ever lacked the advice or the services of international bankers able to speak the language of Wall Street or the New York Stock Exchange. Nor the best legal advice. Nor the collaboration of willing judges ready to view everything through the eyes of necessity.

Has there ever been a dearth of political turncoats willing, nay eager, to do service under military colours? In the run-up to the present elections it is unfair to castigate beyond a point the stalwarts of the Quaid-i-Azam League (the King's Party) because they are doing no more than following a tradition as old as Pakistan itself.

Even so, the fact that the election approaches is something to be welcomed. No matter that the government has tried to queer the pitch. No matter that it is extending subtle and at times not-so-subtle help to its surrogates. No matter that the major political parties, with their two crowd-pulling leaders abroad, will not be able to mount any inspiring or all-embracing election campaign. Compared to the hiatus of the last three years, this is still a quantum advance, a bit of politics being better than no politics at all.

Gen Musharraf's own position is ensured. He remains president and, more important, army chief, for the next five years. Moreover, the constitutional amendments he has decreed will not be put up for any kind of parliamentary approval. But no matter. Once elections are held and parliament stands revived a new dynamic will unfold. We are not moving towards any perfect democracy. Far be it from anyone to suggest anything of the kind. But we will be moving away from the kind of 'benign' dictatorship we've had since October '99. For this we should be grateful.

Let us thank our stars that for all our problems and all our tendency to folly we remain a pluralist society far removed from the monolithic dullness and tranquillity of the vast majority of Islamic countries. Our vibrant press puts us apart from Arab monarchies and Muslim republics. Long may it remain this way.

To be sure, the jihadi culture of the national security establishment, which was a direct offshoot of the military's involvement in Afghanistan in the eighties, was a sinister development leading our country down strange and dangerous paths. But external events forced the nation's planners to mend their ways. But for September 11 they would still have been going down the same road in Afghanistan with Gen Musharraf rather than anyone else continuing to speak glowingly of the advantages of 'strategic depth'. External elements took care of much of this nonsense.

Now for a personal reckoning. I come from a rural place and a rural constituency where elections matter and power and prestige depend on elective office. The lure of no election have I been able to resist, as much because of family tradition as because of personal inclination. Even if I have not stood for elective office in every election, in every election, local or general, I have participated in one form or the other, believing strongly with the patricians of Rome that politics was the business of every citizen.

One of the problems in Pakistan is that the well-to-do classes which live in towns and contribute to the angst which is a permanent feature of the national condition not only take no part in elective politics but do not even bother to cast their votes. Their concern and anger is confined to a ceaseless mourning about what is wrong with the country.

This won't do. Either pay up or shut up. The old ladders for youthful ambition were, firstly, the bureaucracy which took you to high places and into the decision-making process and, secondly, the army which enabled its senior ranks to act as the arbiters of national destiny. The bureaucracy has lost its appeal because, unlike in the past, it is now a junior partner in the decision-making process. The army has lost its mystique and halo because of over-involvement in civilian affairs. Respect is a function of distance and remoteness, not of a proximity which begins to irk and bore, which is what has happened with the army under General Musharraf. There is thus a vacuum in Pakistan which the leashed and muzzled hounds of politics are waiting impatiently to fill.

It must be admitted that some of the more egregious constitutional amendments proposed earlier Gen Musharraf has discarded. If, as he claims, he is a good listener, there must be some truth to it. The National Assembly's term is back to five years. The prime minister will be chosen by the assembly and not the president. The president will be able to dismiss the National Assembly and not simply the cabinet and prime minister which would have been a prescription for perpetual instability. Essentially, then, we are back to the Ziaul Haq situation. These were the powers he had armed himself with. He even wanted a national security council which was lost in the give-and-take which accompanied the passing of the Eighth Amendment.

But Gen Musharraf has learnt something from the past. He will not be putting his constitutional amendments to any vote in the National Assembly, thus precluding any give-and-take. To the National Assembly he will not be beholden for anything, certainly not for any constitutional validation. But this is merely a reflection of the current situation, of what Marxists used to call the 'balance-of-forces'. The democratic opening we are going for is an act of military voluntarism. It is not being forced upon the military. Thus it is only natural that the terms of this opening should be set by the army leadership rather than the political parties which remain in a state of disarray.

The political parties have to rebuild themselves and their credibility. This they will be able to do by putting up a good fight in the coming elections and by assuming an oppositionist (as opposed to a disruptionist) role in the future assembly. The time for politics is not dead. It is only now beginning. It's another matter whether the political class is able to make anything of it.