ONE may agree or not but it is a fact that the long march by Dr Tahirul Qadri has been successful in creating some awareness among the people about the flaws in the existing electoral process.

Mind you, I am talking about the literate and not the illiterate who are still unaware of the country’s politics. They do not know whom they are voting for and why?

During previous elections these illiterate people were being transported by feudal lords of their constituencies in transports provided by candidates and made to vote for them at polling stations according to the wishes of candidates.

These feudal lords will repeat the same exercise in the coming elections too if reforms are not instituted in the electoral process.

During a freezing night of Dr Qadri’s sit-in in Islamabad when emotions were at their highest and the young, the old, women and children were braving the cold weather under the open sky, the anchors of various TV channels were active in interviewing people from all walks of life and getting their views about the sit-in.

During one such interview, when one of the anchors asked an old lady of about 80 years, with wrinkles all over her face and who had travelled all the way from the interior of Punjab to Islamabad to take part in the sit-in, as to whom she would vote for?

She abruptly replied that she would vote for Bhutto. The poor lady did not know that she had come to Islamabad to take part in Dr Qadri’s sit-in.

AZFAR A. KHAN              Rawalpindi