Soon after reaching adulthood, you plan for life. With the idea of standing on your own feet facing the world, at the back of your mind, you estimate the steps towards success and proceed by taking the first step. Some business. Some occupation. Some work to sustain you and the family. Notwithstanding a possible change-in-plan, the struggle to make a name for yourself continues. Childhood completes as per the parents’ wishes; adolescence comes to an end awaiting some initial achievements; during prime days, work starts and ends according to the wishes of the boss; and the marriage period begins and ends by fulfilling related responsibilities. Now your children take over their course of life. Soon you find yourself visiting doctors or preparing for an operation or two. Sitting quietly in a corner one day, some realization dawns on you. Where and when did I live my own life? Your life in fact was shelved in that major chunk of time which I call the ‘meanwhile period’ …!!! From one point-in-time to another point-in-time, the total sum of your lifetime struggle …. the ‘meanwhile period’. Regardless of what happened before and after any development, come to think of it, the most important datum is what is happening in the meantime. Similarly, nation-states go through the same process of aims, struggles, achievements, disappointments, lessons learned, re-learning, so on and so forth. Developments taking place at a given time seem so important, one tends to forget the importance of this ‘meanwhile period’ which is actually the time a person or a country should cherish and feel satisfied at the progress they have been able to make while making plans for the future. The other side of ‘meanwhile’ is equally important and perhaps dangerous. You are so focused on one side and immediate gains, you tend to completely ignore the other three sides of the square, resulting in medium-term and long-term losses. Addressing economic woes and terrorism, no one in Pakistan seems concerned about the menacing population growth, deteriorating health and education sectors and general well-being of the people. Political parties are busy striking lucrative deals to rule the country. Meanwhile, the masses are struggling to make both ends meet. The provision of basic amenities to the people is nowhere to be seen except in political speeches. The irony is, that every time they make never-to-be-fulfilled-promises and every time the people vote for them. Meanwhile, history keeps on repeating itself over and over again. Pakistan is struggling to get back on track in the face of an unending political uncertainty and economic crunch. The government of the day is striving to avert an imminent default through massive borrowing. Major political parties are mulling over new strategies to grab additional seats and public support for the forthcoming general elections. Parliament is at a standstill. So is civil bureaucracy. Military bureaucracy has vowed to stay apolitical. The judiciary is no longer in the news. Militancy has resurfaced compelling Islamabad to formulate strategies to counter terrorism as if this is the first time we are encountering it. Foreign policy seems to have been reduced to only filling the begging bowl. The media is flooded with inconsequential breaking news. Talk shows are busy increasing their ratings. Economists and political pundits are at a loss to understand why corrective measures are not being taken. The common man is just trying to survive in the face of skyrocketing inflation. Meanwhile, plans are afoot as to how best the remaining resources of the county could be utilized for one’s own benefit….!! The World Bank has warned of another global recession, forecasting a ‘sharp, long-lasting slowdown’ with Pakistan’s economic growth slipping down further. Besides having ‘policy uncertainty’, the prevailing view is that Pakistan is actually ‘bringing down’ regional growth. Remittances have declined owing to a number of reasons. On the other hand, Pakistan is boasting about the huge pledges made by international monetary institutions and sympathetic countries in the recently concluded Geneva conference. PM is ensuring transparency in the honest disbursement of funds with a hand on his heart. Ignoring the figure of $ ten billion so far pledged by the world to mitigate the devastation caused to the economy by the recent floods, the opposition is busy castigating the government for spending thousands of dollars on useless foreign trips. Washington has increased the amount of humanitarian assistance but would not like to prevail upon IMF to aid in addressing Pakistan’s economic plight. It is then no surprise that the new COAS is undertaking visits to Riyadh and Dubai to attract investments and reinforce efforts to put the economy back on track and to bring forth Pakistan’s relevance in the region particularly with regard to security matters. Meanwhile, the country sits around the volcano of default, wondering what if the donors stopped extending loans tomorrow. Simultaneously, the people of Pakistan are subconsciously wondering when the overall security situation would improve to at least breathe peacefully. Ever since Khan’s ouster from the PM office, political uncertainty in the country has not ceased to enrich tv screens with all sorts of breaking news. Seeking a vote of confidence in the Punjab assembly, issuance of instructions to dissolve the assembly followed by a disturbing silence from the Governor’s office, the sudden change of allegiances in Baluchistan, emergence of new alliances in Sindh, rumors of some imminent change in South Punjab and all such overtures are making the political scene ever so complicated. What exactly is going on? No one knows but everyone claims to have reached the correct conclusions about the future. Questions are lurking in intelligent minds. Who is involved in this political engineering? It cannot be the erstwhile invisible hands. It cannot be the Army as the outgoing COAS had categorically announced his Institution’s future apolitical disposition…!! Meanwhile, political scientists are trying to understand the form of government in Pakistan as it does not fit in any known definition of ‘democracy’…!!