Only way out.

TO a layman like me, as it is to legal eagles if their statements are anything to go by, the Constitution is unambiguous in saying elections are to be held within 90 days of a dissolution of an assembly before it completes its term and within 60 days on completion of its full term.

That is the unadulterated truth. All else is politics. Mostly to safeguard narrow, partisan or institutional interests. Does anyone care what is in the larger interest of the country? Not one stakeholder or decision-maker. Yes, not one.

More than one dictator out of our illustrious breed of many is on record unashamedly telling the media on camera that the Constitution is no holy document and can be shredded at will and tossed into the rubbish bin. Dictators will be dictators. Their existence hinges on trampling on the Constitution.

But even they need facilitators. And some of the reputedly best legal minds in the country have tripped over each other and rushed to help with drafting Provisional Constitution Orders - PCOs - and amendments, when the dictator has snapped his fingers (the dictator has always belonged to one gender in our case).

Does anyone care what is in the larger interest of the country? Not one stakeholder or decision-maker.

These legal minds who have intimate knowledge of the Constitution, unlike laypeople like you and I, have come up with near perfect ways to undermine it, such as new oaths of office for those who dispense justice and form the ultimate court of appeals.

They have had the gall and ingenuity to develop terms like 'chief executive' to give a uniformed military ruler a 'civilian garb'. They have been so eager to oblige the dictator that they wouldn't have shied away from stitching a cloak with 'Superman' lettered across it, had the dictator asked for that.

Among their specialties, of course, is drafting flawless notifications, granting extension to a man of arms, while elected prime ministers can be ousted once, twice, thrice or a greater number of times, even hanged and assassinated and the Constitution mutilated but there was no problem, no issue, no crisis.

But the nation's health is imperilled, its future turns bleak if the chief wants an extension and does not get it. These legal minds steeped in sheer dictatorial glory and blinded by its brilliance and splendour are not the only facilitators, as a cursory glance at the history of our blighted land will tell you.

Then there are those who endorse every transgression of a...