‘LONG march’, is a political drama starring Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri, being watched by the whole nation 24/7. Like everyone else, I myself have been watching this very intently.

Ever since the long march began, politicians on TV are talking about the number of people at the march: some put it at 100,000 plus while others at 5,000.

My own sentiment is that we all should focus on the cause of this long march — election rigging.

It is true that the 2013 elections were rigged. There are two significant disclosures which prove elections were rigged. First, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar told parliament recently that 50,000 to 60,000 votes remained unverified in every region. Secondly, Afzal khan, former additional secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, said recently that elections were rigged.

Therefore, instead of fighting over the magnitude of the crowd, we should try to fix the electoral system and ensure that free and fair elections will be held in future.

Ahmer Shahzad
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014