THE people of Pakistan waited long enough for this election, part of which should have happened early last year — in KP and Punjab — and part of it late last year. As I say this, it’s important to point out that PTI had resigned from the National Assembly in April 2022, and, other than blaming the PTI for this, no one stood up for the rights of the people who were left unrepresented for two years.

However, such delays are not new; previously, too, Pakistanis waited for years sometimes to exercise their right to vote. This time around, the wait wasn’t as long in comparison, which in itself is evidence of the weakening of the powers that be. But even when the election date was announced, circumstances remained extraordinary. No stone was left unturned to discourage the voters. One party was consistently targeted, its top tier ruthlessly purged and the ones who finally made it to the election line not allowed to campaign. Most of the campaign time was spent underground, evading arrests and even watching their livelihoods destroyed.

If this was on the ground, in Islamabad, the mainstream media ran the most (in)effective disinformation campaign ever: the PTI would boycott the election; the party had disintegrated after May 9 and it had also lost support; it had no electables left; these nobodies and the lawyers who finally got the ticket had no idea how elections worked; they wouldn’t even have enough polling agents for........

© Dawn