THIS is the season when political parties generally produce their election manifestos. Over the past many elections, this has been more a ritual than a substantive exercise, because political parties feel that a large segment of voters don’t bother much about reading election manifestos to make up their minds about voting or not voting for a party. They may have been right until a few elections ago when a growing middle class, the rise of social media and the youth bulge in the voters’ list started changing poll dynamics. At least an emerging class of voters is no longer content with the traditional politics of slogans, tall promises, opponent-bashing and communicating with voters on issues only during elections. Voters demand greater engagement. Sadly, more than half of registered voters choose not to vote as indicated by the average 45 per cent voter turnout of the past eight elections, partly because of traditional politics.

Potentially, over 21 million new voters will be voting in the coming general election. Their knowledge about political parties and what these parties stand for is limited to mostly half-cooked information on social media. Smartly crafted and effectively communicated election manifestos may bridge the gap between political parties and voters, especially the young voters who number around 57m, or more than 45pc of the total registered voters. Election manifestos, therefore, need more serious attention from political parties. Here are six key ideas to make the election manifesto a substantive document:

Bottom-up consultative process: Hardly any political party in Pakistan involves its grassroots organisations and workers in identifying key........

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