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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” These iconic words penned by Charles Dickens resonate deeply with the ebb and flow of human history. Within these dichotomies lies the struggle for democracy.

Few instances in recent times demonstrate that more emphatically than the people of Pakistan on February 8, delivering an electoral upset that few were expecting. Despite the Supreme Court judgment taking away the iconic electoral symbol of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the cricket bat, people voted for all manner of symbols representing PTI-backed candidates. The attempt to confuse voters and diminish the turnout was met with defiance, ingenuity, and the unwavering hope of citizens to take charge of their future through the ballot box. In their exercise of the vote despite all impediments, including the mysterious shutdown of Internet services as polling commenced, Pakistanis reaffirmed their faith in upholding the tenuous social contract between the state and its citizens.

Once polls closed and results from polling stations across the length and breadth of the country started trickling in, the........

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