I STILL remember the day when Imran Khan visited Rawalpindi a few days before the general elections. We kept on running with his car for more than five kilometres. We were medical students and had our examinations the next day.

Still, we thought the dream of ‘Naya Pakistan’ was more important and was worth spending time on. Hanif Abbasi, irrespective of all the allegations, had spent more than Rs5 billion on various developmental projects but still Rawalpindi chooses Mr Khan to be their leader.

They even voted for Sheikh Rashid on his call. He had barely got more than 10,000 votes in the previous elections. However, it is unfortunate that Mr Khan rarely pays any visit to this constituency now.

Mr Khan has a theory that lawmakers’ responsibility is to make laws and not to indulge in these matters, but that stands only when there is a strong local bodies system.

Even in the presence of the local bodies system, lawmakers are responsible to the people who put them in the assembly.

Besides other matters, the crime rate has been high during the last three to four months. More than a dozen people have been mugged and two others shot.

This is the state of affairs here. I have grown up in this city but for the first time in my life I am scared to go out after 10pm. How can we expect to see ‘Naya Pakistan’ when we don’t even see any peace in Mr Khan’s own constituency?

We, the youngsters, who worked day and night for his campaign, were told not to put so much effort since Mr Khan was said to be an outsider for this constituency, but we kept our dreams alive.

Please look into the affairs of NA-56, in general, and the crime rate, in particular, and make people realise that they have not made a mistake.

Abdullah Abbasi
Rawalpindi