May 11 is the day of the general elections in Pakistan. However, I would rather call it the day for selecting candidates from among those who have run the bloodiest election campaign in the country's history. In the past, it was generally alleged that intelligence agencies played a vicious role in manipulating the election campaign and its results to suit the establishment of that time. Apparently this time, this responsibility has either been outsourced to the Taliban, or in the face of no resistance from any quarter, the political parties have taken on the task by themselves. The Taliban banned the election campaign of three liberal parties — PPP, ANP and MQM. They minced no words in delivering this threat and later implemented the same without any fear of reprisal. Rallies, public meetings, election offices, candidates and their supporters were all attacked resulting in denying these parties a level playing field in three provinces. So far, more than 100 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Sindh, KP and Baluchistan. The May 11 elections are being held under a joint electoral system wherein all adult Pakistani citizens can vote regardless of their religion, sect, caste and gender. However, an issue with the format of voter lists will keep a large number of religious minorities out of the election process. It should also be noted that the head of a leading sectarian party has already asked the country's liberals to be registered as “religious minorities”! In my opinion, this is not an election but rather a selection process to choose one of the religious political parties from Punjab to lead the country for the next five years. Perhaps all this is being done because of the withdrawal of the Americans from Afghanistan in 2014. All those with their own personal goals to achieve in the post-2014 Afghanistan should be reminded that the Afghans always put their national interests first. Karzai has already raised the controversial issue of the Durand Line. Afghan Taliban also have no love for Pakistan on this issue (as they proved in the 1990s by saying no to Pakistan's request to officially accept the Durand Line as the international border). Although the outgoing government in Pakistan was marred by corruption charges, I see no political stability, security and peace, or improvement in the energy and education sectors during the tenure of the upcoming right-wing government. Masood Khan, Jubail
