Well Pakis (as you mention later in your post) are just being Pakis with our signature impatience and cynicism.
an
Its my personal opinion that after what we have become over the last 35 years even if we had a Mahatir or an Erdogan or an FDR or a Nelson Mandela we would have still gone after him with full fury. Not that I am comparing IK with any of these leaders. He is not politically savvy but I believe that leaders are only as good as people they are leading and the people around them. IK has definitely made a lot of mistakes but the fact that anyone was really thinking that ANY place in Pakistan could be changed in just 90 days was smoking some of that good stuff :-)
You are very right about the crappy media in Pakistan. They are part of the problem and not the solution.
You are also right about Pakistan needing a serious person who could actually accomplish something. But the sad reality is that in Pakistan just to get to a point where you are in a position to do some serious work you have to do a lot of maneuvering. Its not just the systems and institutions but most importantly the people are broken. For this reason we can't afford just a doer what we need is a manipulative doer with his/her heart in the right place.
Again, you are right about KPK. A shrewd move would have been to go solo in KPK and if they couldn't they should have passed on the opportunity in KPK. The biggest problem in KPK is law and order and even with best efforts that problem is a lot harder to get under complete control without a lot of cooperation and smart governing from the center. I know that people are being impatient but we are also seeing the signs that we lack the people who can live up to the expectations - sometime these expectations are realistic and sometime they are not.
This is where I disagree with you. I know that you hold TuQ in high esteem but I have my doubts about him.
I believe that is one thing that IK did which was very astute politically and that was not to go and join TuQ. It may seem like a mistake in the hindsight but at the it may have diluted his support by that distraction.
What I think is that no big change can come to Pakistan. No matter who is leading. IK or TuQ can't get this divided nation to unite for a better cause. I think that with the way things are no one really can pull that off. I can tell you one thing that you think that IK had it tough with the status quo forces then wait until TuQ's sectarian foes come out all guns blazing. Any significant role for TuQ could provoke a serious backlash which could be very bloody.
The only hope I see is that the cycle of democracy continues uninterrupted and that by the process of attrition we may get rid of some of the corrupt politicians and may end up with a critical mass of politicians who will be forced to do some work.
