Pakistan’s floodridden lands are crying out for political change – but can Jamshed Dasti bring it? – by Decla Walsh
Monday, October 4, 2010
5:27 AM
Labels: Jamshed Dasti , Pakistan , Pakistan Peoples Party , Politics , PPPP
Labels: Jamshed Dasti , Pakistan , Pakistan Peoples Party , Politics , PPPP
As Jamshed Dasti, a brash young Pakistani politician, drives through the flood-devastated farmlands of southern Punjab, a crowd swarms around his gleaming black Jeep. Desperate faces press against the glass, begging for help. Dasti leaps out.
It is chaotic. A blind woman assails him, touching his face and shouting her troubles. A mother drags him into a tent to see her sick son, who has no medicine. A turbaned old man yells abuse about the local landlord. An argument erupts. “You’re just a beggar!” one man yells at his neighbour. Dasti intervenes to make peace.
Otherwise, though, he works the crowd like a veteran – squeezing countless hands, listening to complaints, making promises, slipping 1,000 rupee (£7.50) notes into palms. Then he steps back into the car and leans out of the door. “I am here to bring change,” he shouts above the din. The people burst into applause.
Muzaffargarh in southern Punjab is Pakistan’s farming heartland, a fertile belt along the river Indus that produces a cornucopia of crops – wheat, rice and cotton, Pakistan’s main cash export. Now it is in crisis. Since floods devastated the area last month, the riverine economy has been decimated.