Imagination and memory.

Mere coincidence? I think not! This is how most elaborate explanations (read conspiracy theories) start. We are in the midst of a series of highly imaginative such explanations at the moment. Perhaps the previous season never actually ended. About a year and a few months ago, it was the letter that came from the pocket, waved in front of the cheering crowd, and then moved back into the same top pocket of the waistcoat. Hype was created and many (including otherwise quite reasonable people) consumed it hungrily. Over the course of the months that followed, the message started to change, until it became even more bizarre. There were new blameworthy conspirators every month. The contradictory statements were followed by utterly fascinating mental somersaults of the die hard.

It would have been depressing enough if this all had ended there. But our imagination has neither any ceiling nor is it ever short of new energy. As the political winds shifted, the other side has come up with its own fascinating tale. We are told by them (both in several Urdu op-ed pieces and in increasingly common vlogs) that actually what happened last year was a normal democratic process, but what has happened afterwards is a giant conspiracy (hatched once again by the Americans and their allies) to derail Pakistan's close relationship with China and Russia.

On the face of it, all of this seems both bizarre and fascinating. How could people concoct a new fantastic story so quickly? On a deeper level, however, these stories are all exactly the same. Both sides argue essentially the same thing (with different outcomes of course). They both argue that the other side is benefitting from direct and indirect support of the US that is increasingly unhappy with Pakistan's relationship with China and more recently Russia. Yet, when the going gets rough, both sides who would ask the US congressmen and congresswomen, media personalities and lobbying firms to raise their voices and use everything at their disposal for supporting their cause.

While our imagination is a self-propelling engine...