PPP MNA decides to quit politics in disgust



Tuesday, July 01, 2008
By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: A diehard loyalist, sitting PPP MNA Abdul Qayum Jatoi, who had dramatically turned district Muzaffargarh into a “mini-Larkana” because of his electoral success, has got so disgusted with the Pakistani politics and probably his own leadership that he has announced to quit politics, move to London and to work for human rights movements.

The shocking decision of Jatoi has come at a time when Asif Ali Zardari is busy raising slogans of “political reconciliation” and does not know that his party MNAs are getting disillusioned with politics.

The thing, which may surprise many people, is that the same MNA, who had defied the Pervaiz Elahi rule during his five years as the district Nazim Muzaffargarh despite serious victimisation, has so quickly got disillusioned with his own government and plans to leave the country.

After Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Qayum was one of the few PPP Nazims in the Punjab who had formed the district governments after the elections in 2002 and did not give up his resistance despite many efforts of the agencies and the government to make him switch sides and join the PML-Q bandwagon.

When contacted by The News, Qayum Jatoi said: “Yes, this is true that I am disappointed with the Pakistani politics and have decided to move to London and join human rights movements there.”

Jatoi got really dejected with his party high command after Zardari preferred Hina Rabbani Khar as the minister from Muzaffargarh. The newly-established family bond between Hina and newly-appointed High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan is said to have played an important role in enabling Ms Khar to get the PPP ticket after serving in the Shaukat Aziz cabinet.(Maktaba e Ishq ka dastoor Nirla dekha

Jis nay sabaq yaad kia usay chuti na mili)


This shocking decision of the PPP to ignore its diehard loyalists from the region like MNA Mohsin Qureshi and Qayum Jatoi and prefer someone who had switched sides, had greatly hit the PPP supporters and leaders who had to face serious taunts there.

The supporters of Jatoi were so enraged that the provincial seat he vacated — a seat he had won in the February elections — was clinched by his opponents for the first time in the recent electoral history of Muzaffargarh.

Earlier, Qayum Jatoi had created a new history of defiance in Muzaffargarh when he all alone won the district Nazim elections in 2002 on the PPP ticket. Ch Pervaiz Elahi had used both a carrot and a stick to make him fall in line but he never yielded to temptations and remained loyal to Benazir Bhutto.

Pervaiz Elahi got furious and decided to punish him for his defiance. First, the district funds were blocked followed by no-confidence motions against him. But his political supporters stood by him. At one point, Pervaiz Elahi became so desperate that he got the district council offices locked by the police. Qayum Jatoi did not get cow down and held sessions of his assembly in the lawns of the district council.

When the new elections were held, he won two NA seats and a couple of provincial assembly seats. His brother-in-law Moazzam Jatoi and he himself won MNAs seats. He also won a provincial seat. But, he lost the seat in the by-elections after his voters taunted him over the appointment of Hina Rabbani Khar as minister, in preference over Jatoi.

Talking to The News, Qayum Jatoi accused the secret agencies of making the PPP lose the provincial assembly seat in the by-elections. He claimed that the role of the secret agencies had disillusioned him with the Pakistani politics. He said the people of his area were living in miserable conditions, as they had no education or health facilities.

“I canít see them living in such deplorable conditions and has now decided to go to London to join world movements at the international level to raise the awareness of these things at the globe.”

When asked was he hurt because he was not made minister and Hina Rabbani Khar was preferred, Qayum Jatoi said this was not the reason. “I was told to start lobbying within the PPP to become a minister and this is something I cannot do,” he commented.

“I am leaving as a protest against the rigging and the miserable conditions of the Seraiki people of my area who have been deprived of their right to a life of a normal human being,” Qayum Jatoi said.

Post edited by: fmiana, at: 2008/07/01 11:33