While we wait for elections to be held – with bated breath, perhaps – there are matters of greater significance that trouble the minds of people who genuinely care about the future and the well-being of this country.

No one knows where it is headed, given the moves that are being made on the political chessboard. And the use of force against Baloch protesters by the federal capital police has greatly added to the prevailing sense of anxiety and distress.

Though the electoral process is still in its initial phase, it is becoming evident that it is not fair and transparent. Pakistan has had a sad history of electoral calamities in the context of how the elections were conducted and what their consequences have been. The will of the people has almost never prevailed, mainly because the supreme power exists elsewhere.

Against this perspective, the present situation is exceptionally critical. Essentially, the kind of political activity that paves the way for free and fair elections is not in evidence. Ideally, an electoral process would be a political festival, allowing the people to rejoice in the power they hold as the arbiters of power that their rulers would exercise. As it is, this opportunity is presented to the electorate only once in five years.

This time, there are no signs yet of any popular mobilization and because of the tensions that have darkened the political horizon, there is no clarity about the ideological and policy leanings of particular parties. Real issues that relate to........

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