Even after an oppressive check at the Delhi airport, the Pakistan International Airlines frisks passengers through its own security personnel before they board the plane.
It is cumbersome but it underlines the danger that Pakistan faces from terrorist attacks. The frisking has continued since the days of General Zia-ul-Haq, a military ruler who himself introduced terrorism to diplomacy and politics.
Pakistan is itself a prey to it. But what one remembers about Zia is that he promised to hold elections within 90 days of his takeover but went on to stay for 11 years. President General Pervez Musharraf seems to have taken a leaf out of Zia's book.
He has been in power for seven years, although he had vowed to take off the uniform by the end of December 2004. He has the National Assembly's "sanction" to go on till November 2007 and looks like continuing for five more years, till November 2012, with the jackboots and the khaki uniform on.
Constitutional amendment
Knowledgeable people in Lahore told me that he would get himself re-elected by the present National Assembly and the provincial legislatures since there was no constitutional bar.
A minister of state in Pakistan has already confirmed this and has indicated that the election would take place between September 15 and October 15. However, it would look odd that the assemblies, which end their tenure in November 2007 should elect the president for five years.
Experts point out that he would require a constitutional amendment if he wanted to occupy two offices those of the president and chief of the army staff. Such an eventuality is difficult but not impossible.
The reason is that the opposition is divided, dispirited and disconsolate. The main political party in the National Assembly, the Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), which is the King's party, has already announced its support to his re-election.
The combination of religious parties, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), is opposed to the idea but it may cave in as it has done in the case of women's bill.
When it was amended to shift the blame on the rape victim rather than the perpetrator of the crime, the MMA had threatened to resign from the National Assembly and the NWFP government. The MMA even collected the letters of resignation but did not submit them to the Speaker.
Pakistan People's Party president Benazir Bhutto also reportedly advised them not to quit the assemblies at this time because it could give Islamabad a pretext to postpone elections.
Whatever the considerations, the factor of military is too stark to be ignored. This is also because of Musharraf's daily obiter dicta which newspapers, the TV networks carry dutifully with his photo.
People also annoyingly find that more and more top civil jobs are being filled by the serving or former military officials. All retired military officials are given by the government large tracts of land because this is their reward for the "service".
People mince no words when it comes to criticising the military for its greedy and autocratic hold.
However, when they talk about it even within the four walls of a room, they check whether someone is watching them. They have adjusted themselves to the reality of military rule and it seems to have become a habit of sorts. It should not evoke surprise because in a span of 60 years since independence, 50 have been under military rule.
Terrorism is what torments Pakistan the most. But it is Baluchistan which is the Achilles' heel of the armed forces. They face alienation a piquant situation for having a popular leader Akbar Khan Bugti eliminated. Some fear that Baluchistan may go the Bangladesh way.
I was still in Pakistan when both the government and opposition leaders met at a seminar in Islamabad and passed a unanimous resolution that the solution was through negotiations, not guns. My friend Mushahid Hussain, now an influential person on the government side, said that the core problem in Pakistan was the "mindset" that followed a belief that power should remain centralised.
What he said is applicable to most countries in South Asia. It does not look as if things will change even after the 2007 elections. One, they would be rigged and, two, they would not displace military rule.
The scenario may change if Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were to come back. A Nepal-like situation can take place where hundreds of thousands of people came on the streets. Both have announced their return immediately after the election schedule was announced.
They are convinced that Musharraf would not be able to arrest them or send back after he had announced the election schedule.
However, there are deliberate efforts to create a cleavage between Benazir and Sharif. The impression spread is that Musharraf is talking to Benazir through back channels to secure someone from her PPP to head the next government, if not Benazir herself.
When I met her in London last year, she categorically denied having any truck with the army. Nonetheless, the military junta is trying to reach some "understanding" with the liberal forces.
Persons like Dr Mubashir Hussain, finance minister in the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto cabinet, have been sounded. Shahbaz Sharif, former Punjab chief minister, was reportedly approached. But he has refused to part company with brother Nawaz, who is intractable when it comes to any rapprochement with Musharraf or the military.
He told me in London that the Pakistan military must be like the Indian army, apolitical and engaged only in the country's defence.
Musharraf's dislike for Sharif is not a secret. He has said that Sharif cannot enter Pakistan till the end of 10 years, an undertaking he had supposedly given when he was allowed to go into exile to Jeddah. But Musharraf would like to make a dent in Sharif's support since it is mainly from the erstwhile Muslim League which is now split.
What Musharraf has in mind is to forge an alliance with non-religious parties to fight against religious elements which he himself supported in the last election.
Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.
