It seems that as the polls draw ever closer, politicians grow more and more vociferous in their promises, while not saying enough about how they intend to implement their programmes if they gain the support of the electorate on Election Day. No particular party seems to be afflicted with this problem alone, but they all are. This raises the possibility that this focus on rhetoric might be the sum of their electoral competition, and also fit in with a general disinclination to making specific and concrete commitments. Predictably, PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif claimed that "performance" not claims would determine the fate of the parties on Election Day. Meanwhile, PTI chief Imran Khan, while addressing an election rally in Swabi the same day, promised to order the PAF to shoot down American drones if he was voted to power. He also said that the two major parties had utterly failed to solve the problems of the people, and had been involved in massive corruption. Meanwhile PPP patron-in-chief Bilawal Zardari Bhutto said that those who were spreading propaganda would find out about the party’s popular strength after May 11, while talking to former Prime Ministers Yusuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf from Karachi.
No one is making clear what stances they plan to adopt if elected. For example, Mian Nawaz hedged about as useful a project as the Kalabagh Dam. Though he conceded that it could solve many problems, he said there were ‘serious concerns’ expressed about it by the smaller provinces, and spoke of the need for evolving a consensus. Exactly why the President also says. Mr Khan’s lofty statement about drones glazes over the fact that there would be a need for proper negotiations between Pakistan and the USA. It is not as simple a matter as "issuing orders". While Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was mostly abroad, studying, during his party's tenure, this election is about the party’s performance during its stint in office, and he will take much of the flak for its sins of omission and commission during it.
The election’s approach should concentrate the attentions of the party chiefs, who are also contenders for power. They should also remember that their own refusal to restrict themselves to propagating their own programmes, and to choose to attack each other, merely gives individual candidates licence to do the same in their constituencies. There is little time left in the campaign, but just enough for them to make clear what electing them would really mean. There appears to be no hope of such clarity emerging in the next few days. Maturity would be expected of leaders with more "experience", as Mian Nawaz Sharif said. But it must be remembered that it is primarily the "inexperienced" he is in a battle with. Perhaps his self-recommended focus on past performances would not necessary serve the PMLN chief well.