{"id":12878,"date":"2025-10-20T13:53:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/10\/20\/protecting-voter-trust-pakistan-elections\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:53:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:53:37","slug":"protecting-voter-trust-pakistan-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/10\/20\/protecting-voter-trust-pakistan-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Voter Trust in Pakistan Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Dr Abdul Rauf<\/strong> told a National Press Club gathering in Islamabad that the national assembly vote is a trust held by the nation and must be given only to deserving candidates. He said voting for an unqualified person is not only a civic error but also a religious wrongdoing, while withholding a vote can amount to betrayal of that trust.<\/p>\n<p>Sharing the findings of his research on voting behaviour, Dr Abdul Rauf said roughly fifty percent of Pakistanis do not perform the civic duty of voting. Of the remaining half, he reported that just fifteen percent cast ballots for candidates he deemed fit, while thirty-five percent vote for those he described as unqualified. These figures, he warned, explain why countries that gained independence after Pakistan have in some cases moved ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Abdul Rauf called for better voter data collection so the nation can see how many votes are cast for eligible candidates and how many for the unqualified. He argued that having clear statistics will help identify the scale of the problem and guide efforts to protect voter trust and strengthen electoral responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>On the moral dimension, he emphasised that religion instructs giving the trust to its rightful holder and that deliberately supporting the unworthy is a form of disobedience. He added that asking for votes is incompatible with the spirit of trust and accountability, and that those who seek office by ignoring religious and ethical duty risk serious moral error.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Abdul Rauf also warned that abstaining from voting should not be seen as harmless. He said a voter who refuses to vote neglects a responsibility and commits a breach of trust, while voting for an unqualified candidate amounts to a greater wrongdoing. He cited the prophetic warning that when trust is abandoned, dire consequences follow, urging Pakistani voters to consider both civic duty and moral obligation when they vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Abdul Rauf urges protection of voter trust, warns against voting for unqualified candidates and calls for voter data to track eligible votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}