Shortly after his release from the central prison in Multan, former parliamentarian Jamshed Dasti fired a salvo at ousted premier Yousaf Raza Gilani and accused him of ignoring the poor representatives of the party while leading the feudal elite in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
“The biggest challenge for the poor people of Pakistan and their representatives is the controlled democracy by feudal lords present in every political party of Pakistan,” Dasti told the media after the Multan bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) issued his release orders.
More than 40,000 people from southern Punjab, especially from Muzaffargarh, had received him in the form of small groups. He addressed more than 20 public places till he reached his hometown.
He heaped praise on Pakistan’s independent judiciary but at the same time vowed that martial law is never acceptable whether it is in the form of military or the judiciary.
Dasti announced he would contest from both NA-178 and NA-177 constituencies against the joint coalition of all feudal lords in the region as he had done in the past.
He said that he would contest as an independent candidate and would make a new history not only in Muzaffargarh but all over Pakistan.
For a landlord like Gilani, he said he was “an insult” because he had lived with the people of his region and would probably “also die with them”. However, they themselves might have never enquired about a poor man’s income.
After the court declared him ineligible, Gilani approached the feudal lords and welcomed them to contest the polls despite their conspiracies against the PPP.
“Feudal lords have not left the PPP, a party of the poor. Hence the party is no more a representation of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto’s ideology.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2013.