Whom to vote, whom not to vote for?

As the 2013 elections get heated up, we see candidates hurling barrages of accusations and charges against their opponents. This is something that we should all expect, during an election year as it happens every time.
This is not surprising; in fact, humans have always fought for their differences. Now, in the civilized world, physical fights between the rivals have been replaced with verbal controversy. Now the rivals use different forums and mediums to mould public opinion in their favour in order to defeat their opponents.
Media, both print and electronic, is the most important instrument being used by the political parties to beat their opponents. It is nothing short of a tragedy for this nation that media is being used by the politicians for negative propaganda against others. An ideal approach could have been to have debates on important national issues and to invite the existing and emerging leadership to participate in these debates with their solutions to the problems faced by the common man. It would have been a great help for the layman to decide which party has the best planning and vision.
Presently, the stakeholders are confused about whom to vote and whom not to vote and media further adds to their confusions instead of guiding them to choose their future leadership through purposeful debate and discourse.

Muhammed Zaheer Abbas
IIU Islamabad