Over three thousand were arrested, the likes of former federal ministers Yasmin Rashid, Shireen Mazari and Fawad Chaudhry unable to procure judicial relief and little to no information available on the whereabouts of firebrand anchorperson Imran Riaz Khan, dense smoke continues to billow around the fragile county like a cloud. Riots rage as people’s desperation threatens to pull the societal fabric to its breaking point. Yet a seemingly oblivious state maintains its ironclad grip on the way of the autocrat. It’s their way or the highway. That those with even a semblance of sanity beseech for some sort of a reset where political solutions are sought for a (however critical) political crisis fails to make its way across the table and the ruling elite wish to stretch out the status quo for as long as possible. While the onus to put an end to the spiral of revenge falls squarely on the shoulders of the sitting administration, the former prime minister and his party cannot, and should not be expected to enjoy a clean chit. Had it not been for their obsession with the politics of spectacles, the fact of a sovereign democratic country would not have been hanging by a thread. No matter how unconstitutional the cases against a mainstream leader may have appeared, the witchhunt was no excuse to burn down the entire country in one mega-stroke. This propensity to declare one human as the red line and hold his safety supreme over that of Pakistan fed the beast perpetually ready to orchestrate grand sagas at the expense of institutional integrity. With every arm of the state sharpening knives in one corner while masses foam at the mouth, geared up to turn the tables, how is the light of cool-headedness expected to spell the end of this dark, dreary tunnel? The solution is the same as what these pages have been arguing all along: dialogue, dialogue and some more dialogue. Images of protestors in a head-on collision with anything that dares stand in their way carry an unignorable word of caution: hold free and fair elections, or be prepared for all-out chaos. By taking a stand against the violation of constitutionally-mandated privacy, honour and a threat-free life on top of allowing the accused to practise their right to a fair trial, the government could at least try to repair the cracks in its image. *