A lot has been written on the recently concluded elections in Pakistan, attributing many reasons to the downfall of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the polls. It is true that the PPP-led government completed its five-year term for the first time in the country’s history, but what did it give to the ordinary Pakistanis? They only got widespread joblessness, backbreaking inflation, agonizing power shutdowns and harrowing insecurity.

So the revenge of the population was severe on those in the government. Now the people of Pakistan have opted for seasoned and experienced politician Nawaz Sharif who has been the country’s premier twice before and Imran Khan, who has offered a new leadership to the country, to bring prosperity and peace without any outside interference.

People of Pakistan are waiting to see “New Pakistan” as promised by these two leaders and they should keep this in mind that the people of Pakistan expect action soon. They will lose interest in the election process if real change did not take place. People of Pakistan have pledged themselves to Islamic principles as one of the recent surveys highlighted that 84 percent wanted Shariah law in Pakistan and they expect Pakistan to be a model state of the Islamic Ummah.

The basic requirement for development of any country is good governance based on merit, prudent economic policy and strong and effective foreign policy and we hope that the new government will provide good governance to the ordinary Pakistanis. — Tariq Salman Alvi, Riyadh