Pakistan TV channels have gone in over-drive once again over a complete non-issue. Anchors and newscasters have gone hoarse with the military-civilian ‘power balance’ debate, increasing political haranguing amongst politicians of the capitalist political spectrum. Masses have another opportunity to experience the real workings of a political system and state institutions that are created and designed to protect the interests of the ruling classes and to deceive and control the masses. What we have in Pakistani is the ‘jungle law’ that lets the rich and the powerful go scot-free. The divisions within state have precipitated and have become more visible as the crisis intensified but in the final analysis when the system is threatened the rulers and the state coalesce to preserve their system. General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf departed to Dubai in the early hours of March 18th after the Supreme Court struck down a Sindh High Court order restricting his travel. The Sharif government could have maintained this restriction but chose otherwise. This is in sharp contrast to the PML-N regime’s attitude when it came into power in November 2013 when it was pushing for Musharraf to be tried on treason. Sharif’s government was virtually brought to its knees by protests in Islamabad in 2014, ostensibly orchestrated by the military’s ‘deep state’. Since then, General Musharraf’s trial has been on the back burner and security, India and foreign domain has been abdicated to the military brass. In March 2013, Musharraf returned to Pakistan intoxicated with his two million followers on the Facebook and expecting to be received by hundreds and thousands of people at the Karachi airport. He was once again deceived by his expectations as no more than few dozen people turned up to welcome him at the airport. His departure on Friday is seen by many as the end of an era. However, it will not prevent Pakistan media talking on the airwaves incessantly as they are not interested in addressing the real issues faced by the masses. Musharraf’s future depends on how this political chess game of the ruling elite turns out to be. Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999 when he was the army chief, and he remained president until 2008 when a civilian government headed by Asif Zardari came into power. Musharraf left the country soon afterwards to live in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London. Musharraf has a few outstanding cases including the murder conspiracy of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, declaration of the state of emergency, suspension of judges and the death of a cleric during a siege at the Red Mosque in Islamabad. In January he was cleared over the 2006 killing of the Baloch rebel leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, his first acquittal in the cases he was indicted in. However, this episode exposes more than it conceals. The main issue is that it lays bare the fragile relations between the military and the civilian regime. The dependence of almost every democratic regime on the army makes it vulnerable to succumb to the pressures of military interests. In the present conditions the military itself has its weaknesses that need a certain dependence on these civilian democratic setups for the continuation of its financial and policy gains and interests to be served. The military’s weakness stems from the rot and malaise that the crisis of the system has inflicted upon society and, at the same time, the massive inflow of black capital that began to infiltrate the state and society during the Afghan jihad of the 1980s. Being the largest entrepreneur the military would have its reputation damaged and a greater exposure of the financial and business interests that it commands. On the other hand, civilian political elite and the bourgeois have amassed their financial accumulation and assets through the plunder of the state and the exchequer. This has given the state institutions, mainly the army and the judiciary, a greater control of the civilian political elite and has often dispensed these so-called democratic governments on the basis of their corruption and plunder. Such allegations are experienced by the masses in the initial stages of the imposition of the military regimes, and they only resorted to revolts and upheavals when corruption and repression of these despotic regimes are exposed and the stark realities of military dictatorships are laid bare. However, most elite politicians, particularly right wing and Islamic fundamentalists, have always collaborated with these dictatorships and have been a part of their regimes giving them a political cover. In return they continue the plunder in connivance with these regimes and showers financial favours and make them partners in their businesses and enterprises. The example of the rise of the Sharif family’s business empires and the obscenely rich property tycoons graphically illustrate this process. The Sharifs were small-time furnace owners and traders. Allegedly through bribery and corruption they managed to become one of the richest industrial conglomerates in the country. They achieved this with the patronage of military generals particularly the vicious Zia dictatorship. Sharifs were so generous to the generals that Zia-ul-Haq and his Punjab governor, Lt. General Jilani brought them into politics and made Nawaz Sharif the finance minster of Punjab and later the chief minister. This started his ascent to power and with his ardent loyalty to his bosses this right wing mediocrity became prime minister of Pakistan thrice. At the present stage this bargaining between the military and the Sharif government has reached new heights. Due to their mutual weakness both sides have come to various compromises after initial spats that led the rumour mills spinning that the Sharifs’ majority government was being ousted on several occasions. The Musharraf deal shows Sharif is a wily and astute trader who is more interested in controlling the economy and gaining financial benefits from political power. This situation makes this so-called contradiction between ‘democracy and military rule’, more and more, a farce from the masses that are suffering the stigma of a rotten capitalism that is worsening the crisis and making the lives of ordinary people a living hell. With the so-called stabilisation of the economy the living conditions of the working classes have been declining unabated. The reality is that it is a vicious nexus of the elite politicians, generals, judges, capitalists, drug barons, mullahs and top bureaucrats that rules the roost. Their infightings and squabbles are only for their monetary interests. With the worsening of the capitalist crisis these contradictions will sharpen and could end up threatening the very existence of this loot and plunder leading to bloody military coups. Only a mass movement of the oppressed can break this vicious cycle of the class rule by this callous and reactionary elite. Such a revolt of the toiling classes shall have to leap over any so-called democratic stage and goes the whole hog to overthrow this inhuman system of exploitation and plunder through a socialist revolution. The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com