There’s a week left for elections, and while huge rallies all over Punjab are in full-swing, the rest of the country’s election campaigning appears to be reduced to their television screens.

Television channels have been showing advertisements of different political parties non-stop. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and even the floundering Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) have paid content on television, describing their achievements and what they plan to do over the next five years elected.

Interestingly, the PPP has gone for a more cut-throat strategy, directly attacking PML-N by presenting an alleged recording of Shahbaz Sharif seeking undue favour in a case fixed before Justice Qayyum, who responds in the positive.

There are many significant aspects to this digital campaign. Firstly, there is an incredible amount of money being pumped into this mode of encouraging party support – money from funds which are not unlimited. According to a report last year, many parties don’t pay upfront, promise to pay it later, but don’t end up doing so.

Secondly, the importance being given to advertisements rather than election rallies this time has much to do with the fact that it is a safer method of conducting election campaigns – messages are communicated to possible voters without bomb threats.

Considering the continuous violence on certain parties’ candidates over the last few weeks, political advertisements have taken on new importance.

But how effective do you think this campaigning is going to be? Can it ever really be a replacement for large-scale rallies and more intimate, corner meetings which help party supporters interact with party leaders at a more local level?

Also, is this the correct way to be spending party funds meant for campaigning? Are there alternative means of communicating with the voting public in a more direct way which parties under threat can use?

And lastly, is using information to attack another party directly through these advertisements ethically justified?

Dawn.com invites its readers to share their opinions and views…