THIS is in response to numerous letters and articles calling to make sure that we cast our vote. A majority of well-educated people will suggest that everyone must cast his vote.

However, I have an exactly opposite conviction. I did not cast the vote in the previous elections and will do so in  future also. And that is not without a reason.

Barring some politically-motivated public gatherings broadcast on the electronic media, I have not been lucky enough to see my own representative in the provincial and national assemblies.

I cannot even imagine meeting my own representative to apprise him/her of my sufferings. In this case, am I not justified in not voting a person whom I have never seen? Why should I waste my time in voting someone if I do not know his plans, hitherto unseen, for my betterment? By doing so, will I not be doing injustice to myself?

As a sovereign, I cannot be forced to vote for someone I do not know. But the degree of my pessimism about casting vote is not so high that I would not vote even when the option of ‘none of them’ is added to the ballot paper.

M. A. MANNAN BALOCH Khairpur Mir’s