Elections in Azad Kashmir are just around the corner, yet the real issue is that the politicians have been left behind while society has moved ahead. When politicians and politics fall behind but society continues to evolve, a vacuum emerges between the two. If politics continues to evolve, that vacuum is naturally filled. But when political evolution comes to a halt, the result is not stagnation; it is the birth of crises.

Politics thrives on inspiration. A politician must possess enough moral and emotional capital to keep people invested. The political class in Kashmir needs to ask itself a difficult question: does Kashmiri politics still offer a slogan that inspires, a hope worth believing in, a dream worth pursuing, a romance that captures the public imagination? If it does, what form does it take? And if it does not, why has it disappeared?

Politics, too, must understand that the moment it distances itself from the people, the moment it is reduced to little more than a pursuit of power through the back corridors of authority and a scramble for vested interests, the public inevitably loses interest. And when people disengage from politics, both politics and the democratic process lose their legitimacy. When politics becomes synonymous with manipulation, deal-making, and opportunism, society ceases to place its trust in it.

Politics needs to retain an element of romance if it is to remain meaningful. Tell me, what romance is left in Kashmiri politics today? There is the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Although PTI is not formally participating in this electoral process, it remains part of the political landscape. But what exactly is the inspiring idea on offer? PTI seems to have little beyond the politics of resentment and post-truth narratives, while the other parties have reached a point where even their slogans have faded away. On what basis, then, is the ordinary citizen expected to remain emotionally connected to these political parties?

Times have changed. The architecture of traditional politics is undergoing a profound transformation. Industrialisation reshaped European societies over generations. In Pakistan, however, social media has transformed society at an even greater speed. Politics based on kinship, clans, and local factions is steadily losing relevance. Individuals are increasingly making their own choices. A new age of digital individualism has taken hold. Young people are thinking, questioning, reacting with passion. Their palms carry difficult questions, and unless those questions are heard and answered, democracy and the democratic process cannot command genuine legitimacy.

The real question, then, is: where do we go from here?

One thing must be clearly understood. Whether........

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