Sindh’s changing political matrix: the PPP’s reply
Learned professor and columnist in your newspaper Dr Rasul Bukhsh Rais has chosen to ignore the most recent facts in his article “Sindh’s changing political matrix” (December 18).
The facts about the most recent by-elections in PS-21 (Naushero Feroze) nullify the conclusions of his thesis. The facts are that: 1) Two of the most powerful landlords of the area, i.e, the Jatois and the PPP MNA Mr Zafar Ali Shah had joined hands to defeat a PPP candidate belonging to the middle class. 2) A sitting PPP MNA, whom the party had raised to the level of a federal minister and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, chose to betray the party just because his young nephew, a new entrant to politics, had been denied a ticket on a seat falling vacant due to the disqualification of his younger brother. 3) Nationalist parties of Sindh concentrated on the constituency in full force. 4) The Jatois had the full support of Pir Sahib Pagara. 5) The election had been termed a test for the rejection of the Sindh Peoples Local Government Act by the PPP’s opponents. 6) The Election Commission acted most strictly and stopped all ministers from even visiting the constituency. The PPP fully abided by the instructions of the Election Commission. 7) The election was closely monitored by the Honourable Chief Election Commissioner personally. There were serious violations of law by the opposition but not a single violation by the PPP. 8) The PPP candidate won by a comfortable margin of more than 7,000 votes.
It is time that we started respecting the political consciousness of the common man. This consciousness is irreversible. It is futile to hope for the return of the days when local influentials could be collected together for the purpose of forming a political party. Even those who had been set up by the establishment to block democratic movements, those who were proclaiming that there was no place for democracy in Islam, have to pay lip-service to the principles enunciated by the PPP on its Founding Day. They have to recite Habib Jalib on Mall Road per force. That is the kind of awakening that has been brought about by the long and hard struggle of the democratic forces under the leadership of Shaheed Bibi Sahiba.
Respected Pir Sahib Pagara declared at his public meeting on December 14 that he had not read the Sindh Peoples Local Government Act. Learned Professor Rasul Bukhsh Rais (who I am afraid has not read it either) feels that Pir Sahib can mobilise the conscience of the people of Sindh against this Act without even caring to read it. Some logic, isn’t it?
Taj Haider
General Secretary, PPP Sindh
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2012.