Political consensus.

PAKISTAN has long been suffering from political crisis and this is, undoubtedly, because of undue interference from extra-political forces. But, the establishment alone cannot be blamed for this mess; the civilian governments have also had their embarrassing contributions. There is a complete lack of consensus among political parties which has made politics vulnerable to outside interference.

Had political parties encouraged consensus despite disagreements over national issues, the establishment would not have interfered at all. When a political party seeks support to get power, it has to live up to the expectations of the sponsors even if the expectations happen to be against...