Pakistan, Feb. 4 -- When the Chief Justice of Pakistan with a consensus decision of the President and the Chief Election Commissioner announced Feb 8 as the election date, many doubted if these would be held on the same date. A newspaper headline, "SC sets election date in stone", referred to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and should have left no doubt about the election date.

Almost all political parties are staging their shows as a mark of election campaigns in various cities. And all of them promise to do whatever is possible in the public interest - providing jobs, assuring health and education but cleverly bypassing an important plan - population control. A few days before the election is precisely the time when politicians are seen ...