Dasti vs Khar: Floods act as game-changer

Local residents had adored Jamshed Dasti who had always been so helpful to the people.

Devastating floods were a game-changer for the Dasti brothers in Muzaffargarh NA-177 constituency by-elections. The constituency was vacated by Jamshed Dasti who, as independent candidate, had easily defeated the PPP’s Malik Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar (who got 49,822 votes) by grabbing as many as 103,327 votes in the May 11 general elections. But the floods came as the big game-changers as Khar defeated the younger Dasti brother, Muhammad Javed Khan. He polled 69,903 votes against Dasti’s 60,115.

Triumph of the former foreign minister Hina Rabbani’s father, and younger brother of the former Punjab governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar, was a big upset. Earlier, the constituency was considered a stronghold of the Dasti brothers who also had the support of the ruling PML-N in the recent polls.

During my recent visit to Muzaffargarh, I came across Akbar Hussain, a local resident, who told me that people had adored Jamshed Dasti who had always been so helpful to the people. He even helped Akbar’s family get back their small piece of land from the ‘qabza’ mafia. But Javed Khan Dasti did not bother to reach the people hit by the disastrous floods and this made them so disappointed and unhappy that they ended up voting for Khar who remained accessible and went out of the way to help them.

Zubeida Mai, another local, said that her daughter was about to be wedded when the flood destroyed her dowry. Her house too had collapsed. The family tried to contact Dasti but in vain. It was Khar who helped them rebuild their house and gave them cash; the dowry too was provided.

The defeat was indeed a warning for the Dastis. Jamshed Dasti should tell his brother to improve contact with the masses, and remain easily reachable to the people in his constituency and be helpful to them just as Jamshed himself was, if he wanted to gain influence in this constituency.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2013.