Us versus them.

Democracy is all about co-existence, and not about muscling your rival out of existence. Unfortunately, the political culture in our country has stooped to such a dangerously ugly low that political adversaries are openly hurling life threats at each other, as if mortal enemies like Moriarty and Holmes.

Rana Sanaullah's no-so-veiled threat - either Imran Khan will exist or us - cannot just be dismissed as an off-the-cuff remark given that he is the country's interior minister, having the whole law-enforcing machinery at his disposal. Even if he is frustrated into such a sensitive and inflammatory reaction - because of Imran Khan's day-to-day tirade chockfull of abusive words and allegations of chor, chor - that does not pass as an excuse, as he, being a responsible official of the ruling dispensation, is required to exercise restraint and express calm.

On a more serious note, Sanaullah's intimidating words ring the same tone as udhar tum, idhar hum, meaning 'You rule there [in East Pakistan], we will rule here [in West Pakistan]' - an oft-quoted slogan by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto linked, by many, to the Fall of Dhaka. Seen...