We don't realize the value of what we have at our hands, until we have lost it. Similar is the case with our politicians, who don't realize the fruits of democracy until an adventurer demolishes it by grabbing power for a decade or more. As soon as democracy is lost, our politicians start realizing its benefits when it is too late. A majority of our politicians fight hard for democracy in dictatorships and then start undermining it when they hold power and try to become dictators, good or bad as a military ruler. They don't care for governance, appointing relatives and friend in government jobs, being paid from tax-payers money. They think it's their birth right to flaunt rules and enjoy the financial perks and privileges.
Same is the case with Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and all other politicians who struggled for restoration of democracy in the past 10 years. They now find the nascent democracy too hot to handle and too vulnerable to sustain.
According to PML (N) spokesman Sharif has decided not to contest the by-elections from his hometown Lahore city next month. Two years ago when he returned to the country, he was so eager to participate in the national elections that he took his case in the courts and on the streets following his disqualification from the Feb. 18, 2008 national elections. Now that he has won his case on the streets and in the courts, he has withdrawn from the polls, leaving his followers and party workers in confusion. He wants to keep himself out of the democratic system that he fought for in exile and for which he entered into an agreement known as Charter of Democracy, with his once most bitter rival, late Benazir Bhutto. Now that democracy, in whatever crippled form has returned, he no longer seems to be interested in becoming a part of it.
Several reasons are being cited for Sharif's withdrawal from by-elections, none of which can be written off or accepted in full.
PML (N)'s Version:
Senator Pervez Rasheed, who is Sharif's spokesman, said the party Quaid has decided against contesting the by-elections because he wants to give his party worker a chance to return to the parliament from the Lahore constituency NA 123. He wants to reward a worker, who fought against dictatorship and stood by Sharif and the party in testing times, Rasheed said. According to analysts, this is one of the most bogus arguments when viewed in light of party's decision to back a relative for Manshera by-election in January. These analysts said the PML(N) lost its tradition seat from Manshera in by-election just because the party leader Nawaz Sharif decided to name the brother of captain Safdar, who is Sharif's son in law, for the constituency. In fact the party should have gone for a local party worker, based in Manshera, who knew the local politics and voters for the seat, instead it backed an outsider but a relative, losing the seat to the JUI candidate. It was one of the most humiliating defeats the PML(N) had to face because its top leadership granted the family ignoring the workers.
PML (N)'s Off-the-record version:
PML (N)'s senior leadership maintains, off the record, that by contesting the by-elections and returning to the parliament, Sharif would achieve nothing. ``What will he do in the parliament,'' says one senior leader. ``He is twice elected Prime Minister, who will be playing the role of Leader of the Opposition, when in reality he and his party are hardly posing any threat to the PPP-led government,'' the leader said. Either Sharif is in a position to topple the sitting Prime Minister and win the National Assembly vote for the top slot. That isn't going to happen because of the bar on becoming third time Prime Minister, which takes the steam out of Sharif's campaign to return to the parliament.
Version by analysts:
Many analysts are predicting that Sharif doesn't want to put himself in a position where he is sitting in the parliament and for some reason the PPP decides to quit the government and sit in the opposition, asking some other party to show majority and form the government. In such a scenario, the PML (N), as the single largest party in the opposition benches, is automatically looked upon to show majority. Not only that PML (N) is in no position to show majority in the parliament, it wouldn't want to form the government in such testing times when the security situation is at the lowest ebb, economy is in shatters and social indicators in the country are crumbling. On top of that relations with United States and India are faltering and at the western borders, Afghanistan poses a great threat to security in the tribal areas. Its better to stay away from the government and lame promises of ending load-shedding within months and weeks.          
Version by Sharif's Rivals:
Nawaz Sharif's rivals maintain that he can't contest the election as part of the 10-year exile deal between him and former President Pervez Musharraf, for which Saudi Arabia stood as a guranteer. They maintain that in 2000 Sharif had agreed to stay out of electoral politics for 10 years, as Musharraf pardoned his conviction and exiled him to Saudi Arabia. Those 10 years do not complete until the end of this year, therefore, Saudi Arabia is pressuring Sharif to avoid the elections until that term is completed. Sharif's party, however, argues that if there was any condition or bar, it would have been on Sharif staying out of politics and not just electoral politics. And that Sharif has been taking part in politics since he came back to the country two years ago.
Whatever be the reasons for Mr Nawaz Sharif to withdraw from by-elections, the demand of politics and democracy is that he returns to the parliament and plays his due role. Nobody wants democracy to be destabilized. It is not only the politicians but also everyone as a whole has fought long and hard for the return to democratic system. Now the question is why waste it for no apparent reason? Those who represent the will of the people and have represented their wishes in past have a responsibility towards democracy. The situation faced by the country today is not a danger of martial law but have a political and deadlock of governance. The problem right now is not that Army may be thinking of another coup-- It can't if the government is functioning effectively and efficiently.