Sir: It goes without saying that our nation has been punished by both democracy and dictatorship. Though democracy promises basic rights such as food, shelter, security, law and order, peace, a corruption-free environment, equality, merit and justice for all Pakistan, under democracy we lacked such ideal conditions. We cannot deny that the failure of democracy in Pakistan is due to the lack of competent politicians. According to Article 218, the primary duty of a caretaker government is to conduct free and fair elections. However, the caretaker government allegedly failed to do so. As a result people under the aegis of Imran Khan’s PTI and Tahirul Qadri’s PAT are on the streets of Islamabad to protest. It was the responsibility of the incumbent government to meet the demands of PTI, which asked for rechecking of four seats, and PAT’s demand for a fair inquiry of the sad event of Model Town, Lahore, but both these demands were ignored. Now we all have to pay a price for this, and especially the PML-N leadership. MUHAMMAD SUHAIL Karachi