In protest: Jamshed Dasti relinquishes National Assembly seat

Dasti says he made the decision over govt inaction to repair damaged dykes.

MUZAFFARGARH:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Jamshed Dasti on Wednesday tendered his resignation from the National Assembly in protest over government inaction to repair dykes and embankments in his constituency.

Dasti sent his resignation to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, stating that he had made this decision due to the Punjab government’s negligence in not securing the embankments and dykes of Taliri canal in Muzaffargarh.

Dasti told the media that he tendered his resignation after he did not get any response to the letters he had written to the Punjab government, the irrigation department and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. “I resign under protest and have also informed the prime minister about my decision,” he said.

Dasti said his constituency was “ruined” because rich feudal lords pressured the Punjab irrigation department not to let the water inundate their farmlands. He also claimed that most of the farmlands occupied by these landlords were official property.

Earlier last year, lawmakers in the National Assembly had called for investigating allegations that some influential landowners “diverted” floodwaters to impoverished villages to save their “illegally grabbed” empires in the bed of River Indus.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2011.