At a first glance, giving the steering wheel to so-called experts, their fancy degrees and extensive years of service sounds like a splendid idea. After all, those with the will of the masses have miserably failed to prove their salt worth no matter how many chances rolled their way. In the end, all their success stories can boil down to is money (rather, the lack of it). And following the past record to the dot, a few towering quarters again appear to have read the disturbing tea leaves and slid the technocratic envelope. The possibility of hosting an interim setup for as long as two-and-a-half years has, quite ironically, managed to build a bridge between the opposition and the treasury coalition while they unitedly thunder: “No Chance!” The obvious losses aside, it is not just the political elite that would have a hard time stomaching such a phenomenal u-turn on our constitutional character. Despite the humming and the drumming, bringing in people from outside to rule the roost has never pulled any rabbits out of the proverbial hat in the past. That “technocrats” deliver because they can handle independent decisions without the electioneering baggage could not be further removed from reality. The 1993 caretaker setup of Moeen Qureshi tried everything in the playbook to pass sweeping reforms only to miserably fail at shifting the overall narrative. Every single one of our experiences with the martial law administrators added more credence to how when given a chance, carpet-baggers rush to play pied piper and fill their pockets at the expense of the country. Ergo, the need, as always, is to train the people on the job. How else are they supposed to learn? Yes, the economy is in terrible shape today and the childish squabbles of leaders who were supposed to guide us do not enthuse hope for a better tomorrow. But giving in to temporary solutions, which aim to go around a roundabout, would technically (pun intended) mean accepting yet another experiment–with new faces and the decades-old agenda to trample democracy. At the end of the day, democracy, even in its worst shape, remains the best and seemingly only way for any nation that wishes to prosper; any economy looking towards a solid footing and any country that wants to be taken seriously in the international arena. The technocratic dream may promise rainbows and sunshine, but pushing politics out of the equation has neither worked before nor does it stand a chance now. *