The just-ended election should have been a moment of celebration in Pakistan.
It was, after all, only the second time in its 70-year history that the nation experienced a civilian transition. Yet as election results trickled in with interminable delays due to unexplained "software problems," widespread reports of heavy-handedness by military personnel posted in polling stations and usurpation of ballot boxes by presiding officers, the electorate's mood steadily darkened until it was anything but celebratory.
