ELECTIONS can rejuvenate nations if they are fair, parties present strong ideas and teams to the masses competitively and the winners have a strong mandate to take the country forward. Thursday’s polls may be among our most rigged, more so after Imran Khan’s dubious convictions last week. Opinion polls suggest a hung assembly. Thus, we may have a rigged and weak new government. This leaves the issue of whether parties have strong ideas and teams.

To convince discerning voters, party manifestos must present an in-depth analysis of why people suffer on account of major issues and the best way of addressing them permanently. In the current scenario, where we face huge economic and security challenges and, with the rest of the world, the impact of climate change, there must be a special focus on these areas. I reviewed the 2024 manifestos of the PTI, PML-N and PPP on such key points. All three were issued days before the elections, reflecting the limited role ideas play in our polls as against catchy slogans and patronage flows. But all are better than their 2018 iterations in terms of length, presentation and coverage. This is especially credible for the PTI, which has the longest and most comprehensive one, despite the state crackdown it........

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