THE health of the 2024 elections is not too far from the health of the nation. Let’s take a look at the manifestos of the main political parties through a health lens.
To start with, the PTI’s manifesto was not available through their website, which was not accessible at the time this article was being written. After many failed attempts to access the website, I decided to move on — like everyone else! The PTI manifesto references in this article come through secondary sources and hence may be incomplete. I had access to the manifestos published by the PML-N, PPP and the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).
Although a party manifesto is more of a pretence in our politics, it is nevertheless a tool that can help us understand the vision and mindsets of political leaders and their teams. So, dear reader, the rest of this article is imbued with relativism and will rely on reading comprehension. Thank you for your understanding!
At a time when Pakistan is suffering from a serious public health crisis, admittedly among many other challenges, the health of the people does not emerge as one of the key priorities of our aspiring political leaders. For better appreciation of the health crisis, please see my article ‘Dubious distinctions’ published on these pages on Jan 13, 2023. Having said that, I must quickly add that, overall, the status of health in the aforementioned manifestos was not as bad as I thought — as far as words go. The intentions behind the said words is a different matter altogether. There’s the relativism again!
A party manifesto is more of a pretence in our........