A secular, democratic republic. A nation of resilience and a secret of the divine. An Islamic welfare state and chandelier of the Muslim Ummah. The only Muslim nuclear country in the world. An Asian Tiger under construction. The country is undergoing a critical stage. These have been the clichés and epithets that the country's history reads and resonates with. However, two things that characterised each of the ruling dispensations — be it selectively elected or electively selected — have been that the country is going through a critical juncture and that, should each dispensation clinch power yet again, they would change the country's fate.

However, the country has been made anything, but what was professed and promised. And no promise of postponed prosperity could change the fate of the people, except the enrichment of architects of power and the self-styled messiahs and saviours of the public. The dynastic despots, the capitalists, the crafty clergy, the rightists, the patriots, the leftists, the centrists, the........

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