DADU: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) staged another big show in Dadu district — its second in recent months — on Friday when 25 politically influential village elders along with their followers and supporters announced their decision to stop supporting the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and join hands with PTI chairman Imran Khan in his struggle against massive corruption in the country.

Senior PTI leader Liaquat Ali Jatoi led an impressive rally that passed through Kakar, Fareedabad, Qazi Arif, Tharari Mohabbat, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Mehar towns. The participants held public meetings at Betto Jatoi village of Mehar taluka and Kakar town.

Speaking at the Betto Jatoi gathering of village elders and their followers who switched their loyalties from PPP to PTI, Mr Jatoi predicted a humiliating defeat to be handed to the PPP in the next general elections. He said bad governance and massive corruption on the part of the PPP government as well as its failure to deliver had led to the party’s dip in popularity.

Mr Jatoi, who is a former chief minister of Sindh, said that PPP’s failure and the pathetic economic position and living conditions in Sindh were directly linked with the “massive corruption” of its leaders and lawmakers. This was actually making PPP voters change their political loyalty.

He claimed that PTI was getting more popular with each passing day due to its sincerity with common man. In Sindh, he said, it would be able to form its government after the coming general elections. He welcomed village elders Abbas Ali Mahesar, Qurban Ali Mahesar, Zaffar Hussain, Dilawar Khan Deepar, Ali Hassan Deepar, Haji Moh­a­m­med Hussain Deepar, Moh­a­mmed Hassan Chandio, Yousuf Khan Chandio, Manzoor Ali Sol­angi and others belonging to different tribes, communities and clans including Soomro, Magsi, Bhatti, Deepar, Janwari and Solangi, to the PTI fold along with around 1,500 families.

He said all those who had plundered the national and provincial exchequer would be held accountable for their deeds.

The PTI leader alleged that PPP ministers and other lawmakers had grabbed state-owned lands worth billions of rupees by fraudulently changing the revenue record. They would have to stand trial, suffer punishment and surrender the properties, he said.

Mr Jatoi also accused most PPP leaders of having misappropriated development funds to the tune of billions of rupees every year, and pointed out that this “pilferage” was made through corruption in education, health, irrigation and various other departments.

“Thousands of schools in Sindh are still lying closed, a huge number of students are out of school, most school buildings in the rural areas are serving either as cattle pens or autaq (guest room) of influential feudal lords belonging to PPP, basic health facilities including medicines at government hospitals are unavailable and dykes of irrigation channels have not been strengthened to protect towns and villages from flooding,” said Mr Jatoi. He said all this was the result of corruption in departments and the ultimate sufferers were the general public. He observed that the socio-economic conditions in Sindh had worsened due to corruption, bad governance and flawed policies of the provincial government. The PPP leadership, ministers and lawmakers were out to cripple the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to escape accountability and punishment. However, all “corrupt political leaders, activists and bureaucrats” would have to face action very soon, he added.

At the Kakar public meeting, Liaquat Ali Jatoi, Sadaqat Ali Jatoi, former district nazim Karim Ali Jatoi and Ashiq Ali Zounr delivered speeches and urged the audience not to vote for the PPP in their own interest.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2017