Our politicians seem to have no appetite for politics: they would all rather ride to power in a jeep than on the shoulders of the masses they claim to represent. Despite the wanton destruction wrought on the structural framework of Pakistani democracy over the last two years, neither its victims nor its beneficiaries seem to have had enough.

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? It is a question political observers in Pakistan have grappled with over the past two-odd years.

THE PTI claims to have “all the evidence” against what it asserts was a rigged election this February. The party has released a “white paper” alleging widespread electoral manipulations, specifically the fudging of Form-47, which consolidates polling data. The document highlights discrepancies between preliminary results on Form 45, which showed PTI leading, and the final results on Form 47, prepared without PTI representatives in breach of electoral laws.