Pakistan, July 23 -- Seventeen months after the constitutionally mandated Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were due, the upper house finally received its full complement of members. Eleven vacant seats were filled this week, split between the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the opposition. But what ought to have been a democratic milestone instead served as a reminder of how removed our parliamentary machinery has become from actual democratic practice.

The optics speak volumes. Just weeks ago, opposition MPAs had to approach the Supreme Court to be administered their oaths after KP's speaker refused to do so for months, effectively locking them out of legislative process. It took a judicial directive to compel the speaker to p...