When you cast your vote in any given election, you are voting for representatives who will represent your community, district or state. Elected officials are accountable to the voters who put them into office. Their primary responsibility is to listen to their constituents and enact legislation that will improve the lives of the communities they serve.
For this reason, every election is critical. After all, we are electing a parliament and the government to be assigned by this parliament that will make crucial decisions over a period of five years in a number of fields, including the economy, foreign policy, social life and cultural developments. However, the parliamentary elections to be held next month in Pakistan are far more important than any other elections for the future of Pakistani democracy.
These elections are not only the elections that will simply determine the outlook of our future government and parliament any longer but also will determine what sort of state we will have as an apparatus that rules and organises the affairs of the country. These elections will either make the nation superior to the state or will result in the continuation of the consolidated domination of status quo forces over the political landscape. It will be an election that will determine whether the current state will be replaced by a state apparatus that is based on the rule of democratic principles, equal representation and pluralism.
SARFARAZ SAMAD
Karachi
