THIS is with reference to the editorial ‘Poll announcement’ (Feb 21). It rightly pointed out that the country is at a “precarious place because our politicians have yet again failed to provide strong leadership”. It is also factually correct that time and again, they have “put their political survival first and the country second as they focus their energies on manipulating the election date”.

As things stand today, one party is “hell-bent on avoiding polls”, while the other is “playing the role of spoiler”. That being so, I wonder if elections can actually solve the problems that the nation is facing today. Repeated exercises in the past have only succeeded in bringing the country down to the current cross- roads. Is there a guarantee that the next elections will not take us further down the same road? This is not a case against electoral democracy; this is simply about acknowledging the ground reality.

There are pertinent questions that we all need to ask ourselves. Will the poverty-stricken majority of our population move above the subsistence level? Will utilities and essentials get within the reach of the common man? Will the sick and the downtrodden have access to affordable healthcare and education? Will there be timely dispensation of justice in the country? One does not have to be an Einstein to answer such questions.

With the kind of acrimony and animosity prevailing in the political arena, will there even be acceptance of results in case elections are held? The likely scenario is that we will continue to go round in circles. Whoever loses will blame rigging and take to the streets. Whoever wins will unleash the power of the state machinery to take everybody off the streets. Political mudslinging will continue. There is no way of knowing which party will win. But there is every possible indication that the people of Pakistan will lose.

Besides, there are parliamentarians who do not even attend assembly sessions after contesting from innumerable constituencies, which is a sheer wastage of time and scarce resources of the state. Lest it be misunderstood, this is not a case against elections. It is just that there should be some sensibility, code of conduct and a certain framework within which the politicians should work.

Today, they do not even want to sit across the table and see each other’s face; confrontational politics is all that interests them. Meanwhile, the nation and the masses continue to suffer from all sorts of misery, with their cry for help falling on deaf ears. The people are fed up with the manner in which politics is practised in the country. If anything, the low turnouts in the past elections have shown their lack of interest in the exercise. And the turnout has practically gone lower over the years.

None of the major parties got a clear majority. Even the leading party could muster only 31 per cent of popular votes cast, while 69pc of the electorate went unrepresented.

A government with merely a razor-thin majority, consisting of turncoats, that, too, after a lot of cajoling and coercion, was inducted in office. Is that what general elections are all about?

Would it not be wise to add the ‘None of the above’ (NOTA) option to the ballot paper so that the mood of the public may actually come to surface in all future elections? Logic and sanity demand that relevant electoral reforms be implemented before going for the polls.

Khaled
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023