<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the last eight elections, a lingering thought consumes me; will we ever witness a truly democratic election or are we doomed to an eternal loop of deja vu in the democratic realm?<\/p>\n
On a Thursday morning, I casually strolled into a cafe near the Dawn<\/em> office for a cup of coffee. As I waited for my order, I couldn\u2019t help but overhear two young men engaged in a heated debate around the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 2024 elections are so predictably scripted; the festive excitement seems to be missing,\u201d lamented one of the men, who appeared to be in his early 20s.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, gone are the days when there was genuine competition among politicians, creating a sense of anticipation,\u201d added the other.<\/p>\n Interrupting their conversation, an older gentleman seated at a table close to them piped in: \u201cEvery election has been like this \u2014 same players, same umpire, same teams. The only change is the shifting positions of the audience in the age boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n As I slipped out of the coffee shop, I found myself pondering whether this cycle of predictability had persisted throughout history. Was there truly never any change?<\/p>\n Thus commenced an unexpected journey to untangle the threads of electoral history. The vast expanse of articles proved daunting, leading me to seek the perspectives of journalists \u2014 storytellers who had witnessed the political drama up close in newsrooms, on the roads and on screens.<\/p>\n I interviewed five journalists who were kind enough to share with me the nuances of the last eight general elections, unravelling a tapestry of political highs and lows in Pakistan.<\/p>\n When the seemingly never-ending dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq finally reached its conclusion, it seemed like democracy would at last return to Pakistan.<\/p>\n However, political parties elected in the subsequent elections found it hard to retain power long enough to complete the constitutionally mandated five-year term. Hence, over the next decade, Pakistan witnessed four elections.<\/p>\n In the 90s, Pakistanis elected a female prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, twice. However, both times her governments were dissolved<\/a>. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif also held power twice \u2014 once with a two-third majority \u2014 but his fast-paced amendments in the Constitution caused disagreements with the judiciary and the military, eventually ending his terms pre-maturely \u2014 his last tenure in the 90s ended in 1999 via a coup by General Pervez Musharraf.<\/p>\n Discussing the series of elections that were held during the 90s in an interview with Dawn.com<\/em>, journalist Mazhar Abbas shared the reasons behind Benazir\u2019s dismissal, her familial ties, and the violence in Sindh that led to the death of her brother, Murtaza Bhutto.<\/p>\n1990-1997: \u2018Rigged elections\u2019<\/h2>\n