IT could not have come at a more appropriate time: 16 December, till now a remembrance of the day in 1971 when we lost half our country thereby denoting the blackest day in Pakistan's intense history. Now we will remember the worst and the best of our history on the same day and see how far we have actually come. The ruling elite is answerable now for its sins and we have finally evolved one strong independent pillar of the state - the judiciary. The short judgement on the NRO has restored the credibility and dignity of the nation. Now, one has to hope that the alleged and convicted criminals, profiteers and murderers will remove themselves from the corridors of power either by some latent sense of shame; or be removed by their own peers or through court petitions. But their removal becomes the next logical step, since they cannot even discharge their own duties having lost all moral credibility. Ironically, the Supreme Court Judgement also retrieves lost national space from the Americans who had been in the forefront of brokering the NRO in the first place. So, sadly for Pakistan, while the media and people of Pakistan rejoiced at the striking down of the NRO and the rejection of an attempt at whitewashing corruption and murder, the US media was less forthcoming. Some of the leading papers of the East and West coast were only concerned about President Zardari because they felt "the Obama Administration needs Zardari" simply because he is the only voice supporting the AfPak policy while the rest of the nation was sceptical on this count. Voices of doom and gloom over what is being perceived quite wrongly as impending chaos Well, perhaps this is the beginning of the Pakistani nation making it clear that it will do what it feels is in its best interests, not simply because the US wills it so. The danger now comes from the guilty deliberately trying to fester discontent and conflict within Pakistan to salvage themselves. That must not be allowed. The onus is on the Prime Minister to behave like a statesman, acting in the interests of the nation, not simply his own party. After all, he was voted unanimously into the office of the Prime Minister but so far he has shown himself to be burdened by his party's leadership which refuses to restore the balance of power in favour of the Prime Minister as required by the 1973 Constitution, the Charter of Democracy and the will of the people. The burden of saving democracy and giving it a clean course for the future rests with him and he should find the strength to move without fear, knowing that the nation will be with him. This is his defining moment in history. If he fails the nation now, he will sink into oblivion. If he is able to fulfill the destiny thrust on him, he will have removed the dark clouds of an earlier 16th December and shown the nation a light at the end of a tunnel of political darkness.