President Mamnoon Hussain delivered his first annual address to a joint sitting of parliament to mark its opening this year. The president is largely seen as a supporter of the current government and his speech reflected that sentiment. He praised the government’s efforts to fix the economy and his 30 minute speech went from describing new power projects to youth business loan and laptop distribution schemes, which drew repeated applause from the treasury benches. The prosaic speech continued to highlight the achievements possible under democracy, the importance of democracy and expression of the will of the people, and the supremacy of parliament. References were made to the need to cement ties with Afghanistan and to resolve the Kashmir issue with India as soon as possible. Most of the speech was the standard fare one has come to expect of presidential opening addresses, since the president is a constitutional head of state, but one or two remarks stood out. The first was his admonition that institutions need to remain within their constitutionally mandated limits and find ways to cooperate within their spheres of authority. His words naturally need to be viewed through the lens of perceived friction between the government and the military establishment, reports of which have a tendency to take on a life of their own. The point was drummed home when MNA Jamshed Dasti objected to the president not specifically naming the ISI when praising the role of the armed forces in defending the country, though he did highlight the role of “other military institutions working day and night with devotion”. It is difficult to see how much more praise one can heap on an agency that is meant to be secret. Aside from institutional unity, the President further asked lawmakers to help eradicate terrorism from the country; put aside political and party differences to ensure the endurance and stability of democracy; struggle together against corruption, injustice, exploitation and inequality, and encourage religious, ideological and intellectual harmony. This was the closest he came to detailing a vision for the legislative year, and the lack of a clear framework on how to achieve these goals was sorely missing. Given this, the speech was something of a missed opportunity for the government to lay out in detail at least part of a legislative and administrative agenda for the coming year. Platitudes and clichés were clearly meant to fill time and get the ritual of the presidential address over with. The other way to view the address is as a strategic opportunity to shape the next year, and the government missed out on this. To an extent it also showed the value the government currently places on parliament. This was not lost on the opposition parties; a number of opposition Senators boycotted the speech over the Prime Minister’s (PM’s) lack of appearance in the Senate and the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly (NA), Khursheed Shah, said he believed they were justified given how few times the PM has appeared in either house. Both sides have valid points; on the one hand the country is at war, the PM has had a frenzied schedule that included over a dozen foreign trips this year, and he has personally taken a hand in trying to end the power crisis on a war footing. However, his current dilemma with regard to the armed forces and the supremacy of democratic institutions can also be traced to a lack of concern for parliamentary proceedings. If the PM wants democratic institutions to remain supreme, then he has to give them the importance they deserve, irrespective of the size of his mandate. The government has moved no bills over the last year, and parliament is diminished if it does not perform its primary function of legislation. In its second year the government must look to make its legislative and administrative agendas clear, to segregate them intelligently and see what areas require decisive action and where debate is required. Platitudes and self-congratulation will not pave the way for a sustainable democracy. *