It will be tragic if men like Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammd Chaudhry and General Ashfaque Pervez Kyani---and many others whose 'lives' are linked with the 'life' of this nation, aren't harbouring a dream of a magical and a massive turnaround in our fortunes.

More than ever I am convinced---and I am sure that millions and millions of my disillusioned countrymen aren't any less convinced---that our immediate future, for arresting the country's dismal slide down into an abyss of multiple disasters, and for putting it on the road to recovery and reconstruction---needs not the continuation of an intrinsically flawed and excessively abused democratic order---but an immediate emergence of a "leadership"---individual or collective---that has the will and the authority---as well as the vision and the vigour to pursue an agenda of revolutionary change.
Nothing short of an 'unbending' will to do whatever is necessary to be done to bring about a turnaround in our fortunes--- can save this great country from the tragic consequences of being governed and led by short-sighted self-seekers, cerebrally-deprived planners, spiritually impoverished opportunists, woefully unchallenged pursuers of the enemy agendas, and totally undeterred practitioners of the cankerous evil called corruption.
From which source, which nook and which field will such an 'unbending will' spring up? Where is hiding the womb from which will emerge such a leadership?
These key questions have no ready answers for me. And I know that millions and millions of my countrymen too have all around them a frustrating blankness to stare into. There happens to be no visible sign anywhere of a saviour being born--- of a star appearing to illuminate the skies with the brilliant flashes of hope.
But then does our vision have any excess into the invisible and the unseen? History is replete with the examples of the epoch-makers making their appearance on the horizons from utterly nowhere---
One such example in the modern era is Putin of Russia. Who thought while Yeltsin was at the helm of affairs that an unknown protégé of his would suddenly appear to make such an awesome impact on the remains of the dead Soviet Union? Isn't it true that Russia of today has risen from the ashes of a fallen empire through the will and the vision of a single man---Putin?
So let us not write off the much-yearned-for emergence of a 'personified will' to bring down the topless but moth-eaten towers of a sick and sickening system that has delivered nothing but deprivation, impoverishment, frustration, greed, power-lust corruption, seething anger and insufferable frustration.
It will be tragic if men like Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammd Chaudhry and General Ashfaque Pervez Kyani---and many others whose 'lives' are linked with the 'life' of this nation, aren't harbouring a dream of a magical and a massive turnaround in our fortunes.

The (N) league recently lost its traditional seat in the Mansehra's bye-election, which it has been winning in the past. It is now going to contest two very important bye-elections in Punjab: NA 123 and NA55. Would the Mansehra's defeat rub off on it in these two bye-elections? The (N) league has been going the whole hog to ensure that it wins both these bouts. Its leader has been leaving no stone unturned in this respect.
The Mansehra's defeat, however, has broken the myth of Nawaz Sharif's invincibility. His popularity no longer can be taken for granted. The dismal performance by his party in the Mansehra's bye-election has jolted him to the core. He has deputed Sardar Mehtab Abbasi to probe causes of (N) league's debacle in Mansehra.
The PML (N) Chief has been talking with tongue in cheek on number of national and political issues since he returned from his exile in Saudi Arabia. Small wonder he was often billed as a friendly opposition to the ruling party.
Let us admit that after 2008 election the PML (N) has failed to seize opportunity and turn itself into a national party. It focused on the northern Punjab only. Its dream that (Q) league will fall like a house of cards and its MPAS and MNAS will join its ranks has also not come true. The man in the street sees little or no difference in the power antics of Nawaz Sharif and Zardari. If the PML (N) does not succeed to offer itself as a better alternative to the PPP, it does not stand any chance of making inroads in the country's politics.