The general elections are likely to be held by the end of this year so I feel happy, relaxed and relieved because now we can select a new lot that can solve our problems.

But I am scared that if the people of Pakistan again give votes to the Pakistan People’s Party and its coalition partners against little benefits and incentives then what will happen?

In all the developing countries where democratic system exists, including Pakistan, rulers have the practice to get personal benefits and engage in debauchedness in their whole era. But just before the election they give relief to the public as people can easily forget all the problems which they faced for many years. The Pakistan Peoples Party and its allies are also doing the same and believe that providing some basic necessities to the people just before elections will make masses forget all their atrocities.

If we see the prices of basic commodities like wheat, sugar, pulses etc, its really shocking and I have been thinking that how is that possible for any person or a group to increase so much prices in a little time. When PPP and its allies took control of the government the price of wheat was 13 per kg but it has reached to around 28 per kg, the price of sugar was 21 per and now it is around 60 rupees per kg. Likewise the price of milk was 25 per litre and now it is R.70 per litre. The prices of petrol has jumped to 106 from 56 but since this is the election year, the government is suddenly thinking of providing relief to the people and so it has decreased around 15 rupees per litre. In addition if we talk about the duration of loadshedding, that has increased to 20 hours in many parts of the country from 2 hours,  but now it is possible that in future government would minimize the loadshedding duration as their new tricks to get  some favour of the people, so we must be alert with these type of tricks in the coming days.

When I see the present situation I don’t know why I remember the statement of Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, which he gave just after winning the election and said that “Democracy is the best revenge” (Jamahoriat hi behtareen intaqam hai), so he pursued his statement and get revenge from the people but now its time for the people to understand their responsibility and must cast their votes to take revenge from the current rulers and not to celebrate the election day as holiday.

We daily see anger of people on the social media where they criticise the leadership and continuously making jokes. But one thing is clear that a change cannot be brought in by these type of activities.  If people really want to bring a change they must take part in the political process by giving votes to the right people.

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Fahim Patel, is a graduate from Karachi University. He is a freelance journalist.

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