Tabdeeli Pasand Party will surprise everyone in the elections: Ali Qazi

Says his party wants good governance, rule of law and will fight feudal political culture

HYDERABAD: After briefly venturing into politics before the 2013 general elections, senior journalist Ali Qazi, whose family owns a Sindhi media group, has re-launched himself in politics. At a press conference on Monday, he informed the media about the salient features of the Tabdeeli Pasand Party's (TPP) manifesto.

The TPP, which has been registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan, was announced at a public meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday.

"We want good governance and rule of law," he said at the press conference, putting in a nutshell the TTP's manifesto, which has yet to be circulated among people. Qazi vowed to challenge the 'bohtar [feudal]' political culture prevailing in Sindh. People from between 400 to 440 feudal political dynasties are getting elected time and again to the legislatures from the province, he claimed.

"I don't regard all landlords as bohtars. I am referring to those with a tyrannical mindset," the TPP founder said. Though critical of the existing lot of electable candidates in the province, he clarified that he did not think that all the electable politicians were bad. He said that he, however, considered politicians tainted with corruption charges as an unacceptable choice.



"I want to break the psychological barrier that we [ordinary people] can't win [elections] against bohtars and that there can be no electoral victory without these electable candidates."

Justifying his ingress into politics, Qazi said as much as he desired to witness a change in the way of governance, the successive governments during his stint in journalism induced further decay in the system. "This made me think [whether we should] keep only talking, protesting or complaining about the problems endlessly or [we should] start to do something to bring about the change."

At the time of the 2013 elections, Qazi had held a public meeting in Bhit Shah, Matiari district. However, there was a long hiatus in his political activities after that. Responding to a query regarding his re-entry into the politics, he asserted that things were different this time. He told the media that flaws in his past strategy and a lack of political organisation were reasons behind the failure of his initial attempt.



According to Qazi, the widespread rigging in the 2013 general elections would not be repeated in 2018 because the ground realities had changed and many factors would prevent electoral fraud from happening. He cited public opinion against rigging, print and electronic media, the judiciary, citizen journalism including video and image capturing using mobile phones and army deployment as factors that would hinder rigging. "Our party will surprise people in the 2018 elections," he said.

The selection of the place for his party's maiden public meeting and his narrative, which identifies 'bohtar' as his nemesis, suggest that the Sindhi electorate will be Qazi's core focus. However, he contends that the problems of bad governance and corruption affect all people regardless of ethnic or sectarian affiliations, therefore, the party's targeted voters will not be limited to a particular ethnicity.