IF you are going to vote today, take out a couple of minutes to read this first. There is no candidate endorsement here. We all want the same thing, for our country to prosper, our rights to be secure, the future bright for our children.

Dear voter, please understand this election is more important than any since 2007. This is not hyperbole. That year saw Pakistan undertake a very troubled and very difficult transition from military rule to civilian democracy. The baggage from the era of military rule was heavy — an economy in meltdown following years of being artificially pumped with borrowed dollars, a judiciary scarred from a dictator’s attempt to cull the bench of the Supreme Court, a rising arc of terrorism following the chaotic end of the Lal Masjid episode, relations with the US fraying as the Taliban scored gains on the battlefield, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and so on. Navigating the politics of transition was near impossible. It involved absorbing the political cost of stabilising the economy, of massively escalating the fight against terrorism and inviting the wrath of the jihadi establishment in the country, with its deep roots, and managing the aftermath of the lawyers’ movement.

This is not an exhaustive list, of course. It is just a reminder that things get extremely complicated during periods when the country has to transition from military rule to civilian democracy.

The present moment is perhaps not the same as a transition from military to democratic........

© Dawn