Raja Afzal joints PPP, commits political suicide

Politician Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan has joined the Pakistan People’s Party. He has deserted the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) after decades of affiliation. Raja Afzal won countless elections from the platform of the PML-N and also remained a senator on the party’s ticket. He was also a member of the party’s central executive committee. In the present parliament, Raja Afzal’s two sons were elected as the members of the National Assembly from two constituencies in Jhelum.
The desertion was very shocking for the supporters of Afzal as they were sensing that he would join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf after he developed differences with the party leadership.
Raja Afzal has committed a political suicide by changing the party. For decades, he has spared no opportunity not to harass the workers and voters of the PPP in Jhelum. He has facilitated the workers of the PML-N to take all sorts of revenge from the PPP workers in villages and towns. The police and revenue officers were made hostile for his opponents.
Now Raja Afzal would have to seek votes from those people against whom he has not missed any opportunity of harassment through police and revenue officials on the behest of his previous voters.

Waheeda Shah slapped with two year disqualification

Waheeda Shah of the Pakistan People’s Party has been disqualified from contesting the election for two years after she slapped two polling officials during a by-election.

I promise to be a good girl.

She reminds me of a true incident. A friend’s paternal uncle (taya) was suffering from a serious ailment and doctors had told the family to take the patient home and pray for him. All family elders had gathered around the dying patient. He raised his shaking hand, summoning his younger brother (my friend’s father) near him. All the people present in the room silenced, sensing the emergency and increasing their earshot.
The dying man told his younger brother in a feeble voice, “Customs demand surviving brother to marry the widow of his deceased brother.” My friend’s father nodded, giving the impression that he has understood what his elder brother was saying at the most critical point of his life. The patient didn’t stop there. He breathed deeply as if gaining courage to say something and said, “My wife is a rude head-strong woman. Don’t commit the mistake which I committed and suffered for my whole life.”
The old man’s advice was funny enough to make all people in the room laugh, serious enough to dissuade his younger brother form marrying his wife and harsh enough for his would-be widow.
The vacancy Waheeda was contesting fell vacant after the death of her husband, Syed Mohsin Shah Bukhari. Unofficial result declared her the winner, but the ECP withheld the results following the slapping incident. What she did is condemnable. We can’t allow influential people to violate laws when common folks have to abide them.
I give credit for her disqualification to the media, whom I don’t like much, and Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, for whom my reverence is declining rapidly.