Back in 2011, images of protestors occupying Tahrir Square didn’t just inspire Arabs and their North African neighbours, but the entire world. Finally, people who had been disenfranchised, depoliticised and robbed of free speech and assembly, took control of their fates and reclaimed public space. Eventually, the Egyptian government had to adapt and respond to the peoples demands. In a span of few months, a revolutionary wave swept through Egypt. Egyptians transcended religious, cultural, ethnic and social biases in an unprecedented display of unity and valour. The country had changed for the better — or at least that’s what everyone thought. Post-Revolution Egypt offers a sombre state of affairs. After Mubarak was deposed, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assumed the reigns. It decreed dissolution of the Egyptian parliament and suspended the Constitution of Egypt. There were going to be free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections; it ordained. But everyone did not share the optimism with the military calling the shots. And this is where the cracks started to emerge, creating two antagonistic halves: people that distrusted the military and those who pinned all their hopes on the military. In Post-Revolution Egypt, the role of Muslim Brotherhood too, with time, had waned. It had chosen to stay on the side-lines during the initial days of the Revolution, but with the blessings of military it eventually entered the fray. Some believed its goal was to hijack the movement, in exchange of winning the parliamentary elections and returning a presidential candidate. Since no political party that could challenge and match the organisational structure and resources of Muslim Brotherhood was carved out of the Revolution; they had weighed their options carefully in the deal with the military. Still, it could not emulate AKK in Egypt. The vested interests in the society that have long benefited from the system as it operated, often work in tandem to protect the system, and consequently their own interests. These interests are well entrenched in the systems and formal structures of the government; such as military, civil service and superior judiciary What came next was not part of the plan — not for the Muslim Brotherhood anyway. A year of relentless criticism in the media, often orchestrated by journalists and analysists sympathetic to or paid by Tamarod. Few expected that it would only take a year to manufacture and rally enough support to manage a second wave of protests against the new regime, this time against Morsi; an elected civilian president. These protestors, some of them well meaning, were given complete military and police protection. Morsi was deposed and arrested within three days of regimented protests against him. Three days! For further context, as it often happens, the vested interests in the society that have long benefited from the system as it operated, often work in tandem to protect the system and consequently their own interests. These interests are well entrenched in the systems and formal structures of the government; including the military, civil service and superior judiciary. In the middle of the Presidential elections, Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court upheld the ruling from Supreme Constitutional Court that dissolved parliament. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, emphatically announced “interpreting” the Court’s decision, that not merely the third but the entire body of the parliament should be dissolved. Regardless of the outcome of the Presidential elections, that is, even if the candidate ostensibly preferred by the military would not be elected to office; the real political power would remain with the military. But with Morsi in power later, they were not prepared to take any chances. And they did not — Egypt was never going to become another Turkey or Pakistan. Subsequently, the Constitutional charter of 2014 — pushed only thirteen months after the amended Constitution of 2012 — gave the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces a Constitutional a role in governance. For all practical purposes, it was the military and not the Constitution that defined the new social contract between the state and its citizens. On March 2, 2017 the Court of Cassation cleared Mubarak of all the criminal charges. “Sub taj uchalay jaien gae…”as Tina Sani sang the immortal verse from Faiz Sahib, back in February 2011, she dedicated it to the people of Egypt. To this, the captivated audience in Lahore responded with deafening cheers. Such was the romance associated with the Egyptian Revolution. And that lives on, moreso in the hearts and minds of those who lived through the Revolution. I asked a dear friend, who had travelled from abroad to participate in the Revolution if the Egyptians do it all over again. “It would be obligatory”, he replied. The writer attended Berkeley and is a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn Published in Daily Times, September 14th 2018.