Pakistan’s 67 years of suffering can be attributed to one tragic flaw: Failure of imagination.

A country so gifted with great potential, suppressed and stymied to a point where day to day survival is a herculean effort for the people and for the state itself.

A nation so full of resources and vivacity, doomed to a life of mediocrity.

A country where mediocrity is now celebrated and exceptionalism both feared and looked down upon.

Imagination liberates a people from the mundane hardships of everyday to help us plan for a better future. But a careful look at our history reveals we have barely ever thought things through. Why else do you think we use the democratic argument to undermine democracy and market dictatorship?

Not convinced? Think about how, for the past six years, a substantial segment of the country’s thriving media has stopped at nothing, reminding us that the country’s leading democrats are essentially dictators; that the last dictator to rule the Islamic Republic was much more democratic in comparison.

And that is not all.