Pakistan has managed to distract itself with palace intrigues again this morning. The extension has a lock out on the top 5 Twitter trends. Attention and media space are finite, so what more important problem are we ignoring today?

Routine appointments and retirements are anything but routine here. What is obvious to every Pakistani is clear on Google Trends too: the CJ and COAS regularly vie for attention with the PM is.

Over in India, we don't see the CJ or COAS spiking as in Pakistan. The relative interest in their Army Chief is lower, and these results may be over-estimates if Indians are searching for the Pakistani CJ/COAS.

In contrast, in both the US and UK, neither CJ nor Army Chief figures close to their elected representatives.

Obviously need to dig much deeper into this, but it appears that our weaker adherence to the rule of law creates costs in the nature of problems we engage ourselves with too.

Imagine if every CJ/COAS remained apolitical and went home on time. We would at least be free to focus our attention (and ire) at elected representatives we can vote out next time.

A country that this month has seen some of the world's worst pollution, allegations of a polio cover-up, confirmed polio cases, controversy over our 'game-changer' infrastructure project, and continued debt problems, has collectively wasted a day worrying about one man's job.

This would not have happened if Bajwa did not seek, and Imran did not acquiesce to an extension. The country deserves better.