Registering new party: Dasti submits party’s constitution to ECP

Approaches poll body anew with list of office-bearers

ISLAMABAD: Jamshaid Dasti, an independent member of the National Assembly, has once again approached the election authorities to enlist his ‘Awami Raaj Party’ and to request allocation of ‘duster’ as its election symbol.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) returned Dasti’s application last week due to incomplete documents. However, this time he has submitted along with his application the constitution of his party and the list of its office-bearers. Dasti will be convener of this party.

Dasti, a vocal member from Muzaffarghar district of South Punjab was elected to National Assembly in 2008 for the first time on the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) ticket in a major upset. He was de-seated for having fake degree but after the graduation condition was scrapped from the law, he contested again and returned to the assembly.

He contested the 2013 general election as an independent candidate and won. He briefly flirted with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) during its 2014 sit-in.

Talking to reporters after submitting his new application, Dasti said he is disappointed with all mainstream political parties. He claimed that if his party comes to power, a common labourer will get salary equal to the president of Pakistan.

Dasti announced he would hold a hunger strike in front of the parliament house after Ramazan on Panama Papers issue. He said the terms of reference (ToRs) formulated by the government and opposition parties would never lead to any tangible scrutiny into the scandal.   He also announced to file an FIR against US President Barack Obama for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty by launching drone strikes inside its territorial boundaries.

The ECP’s website lists 327 political parties – most of them one-man shows .

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2016.