This is with reference to the Farrah Dogar crisis that is threatening to cause a war of the institutions in which only one would assert its supremacy on the other. Some TV anchor has very rightly commented that this situation could have been averted if the incumbent top officials on both sides had quietly resigned. But, this didn't happen and now the two institutions are on collision course. I would not go into who's right and who is wrong because that is now very obvious to the people watching this unfortunate episode. We have seen that every time such a situation arises, the country is hijacked by the third force waiting in the wings for such a chance to arise and the country goes back many decades. Irony is that no one in our country wants to budge an inch. Right now, the government looks to be siding with one party making the parliamentary committee of MNA Sher Ali look weak. On the other hand, asking the Chief Justice of Pakistan to appear before the committee was itself an invitation to trouble. Mr. Sher Ali now has the option of voluntarily resigning from the chairmanship of his committee. This will not only save the vulnerable system but will make a hero of him. Sometimes, a defeat has aspects of a victory. -MOHAMMED ALI JAWAID, Karachi, via e-mail, December 5.