The LB exercise

Since the announcement of local bodies elections by the Election Commission, our ruling elites and their agents have been in full action with their dirty tricks to cheat gullible, deliberately kept illiterate, ignorant, poverty-stricken voters in Sindh. All those with the anti-people and anti-development forces called Pirs, Mirs, Shahs and waderas, among others, are forging new, unholy alliances and entering into the proverbial marriage of inconvenience only to defeat forward-thinking individuals and groups.
It is a painful and undeniable reality that politics in our country, especially in rural areas, is usually bereft of ideology because illiterate and downtrodden voters are crudely mobilised along ethnic, biradari, religious or sectarian lines. One can infer that like previous local bodies polls, the latest polls will not make any difference in the living standards of people and in the overall condition of cities, towns and villages.
Hashim Abro
Islamabad