Why Jamshed Dasti Really Should Be Jailed

Ok, I know we've only made fun of MNA Jamshed Dasti's verbal diarrhoea so far. But really, enough is enough. It's one thing to be a buffoon who never realizes that everyone laughs at him. It's quite another to be a dangerous and slimy bastard. This time he has really crossed the line and it would be shameful if the Supreme Court does not immediately take suo moto notice of his shenanigans.

Dasti and Mukhtaran: Two types of role models

The Express Tribune has today published an explosive story in which gang-rape survivor and all round role-model Mukhtaran Mai has claimed that she has been at the receiving end of threats and pressure from Dasti to drop her case against the people she accuses of conniving in the violence against her.

"In an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune, Mukhtar Mai, an iconic character who came to the limelight for her brave fight for justice after being gang-raped, has alleged that MNA Jamshed Dasti is threatening her family through his emissaries to withdraw the case or face dire consequences. ...“Mr Dasti threatened me last week through his messengers in Mir Wala (Muzaffargarh) to withdraw my case from the apex court and to compromise with the Mastoi Brathery, 14 members of whom are in prison,” Mukhtar Mai said in an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune. 

Mukhtar also alleged that Dasti, through the supporters of Federal Minister for Defence Production, Sardar Qayyum Jatoi, whose constituency she lives in, is putting pressure on her family in all sorts of ways.  She said that her 60-year-old father, who is a woodcutter by profession, had also been warned that he would have to face the music."

By the way, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Jatoi is the same idiot who said this. Birds of a feather and all that. Just in case you had any doubts about Mukhtaran's account:

"Meanwhile, when approached by The Express Tribune, an unabashed Jamshed Dasti, who is no stranger to controversy, confirmed that he had indeed requested Mukhtar to reach a compromise on the matter.

He claimed that the judgment delivered by the then Anti-Terrorism Court in the case was adversely affected by immense pressure from then president Pervez Musharraf and anti-Islamic lobbies. “I swear, the persons imprisoned in jail are innocent and the court has no justification giving the death sentence to the accused persons in a gang-rape case,” a furious Dasti said. The Supreme Court may take up the case and decide it within ninety days, he said, criticising Mukhtar as someone who distorted the image of Islam and played into the hands of non-Muslim NGOs."

Leave aside the issue of how Dasti has committed blatant contempt of court - which the courts should decide on. But to blame the sentence on pressure from Musharraf - who it may be recalled had himself famously questioned the motivations of rape victims who stood up for their rights in general and tried his best to downplay the Mukhtaran Mai saga  - just boggles the mind.

What is even more baffling, nay shameful, is how the PPP can still support a man whose opinions fly in the face of all that the liberal PPP is supposed to be about. This is not just mere stupidity. It is blackmail, criminal threats and siding with oppression.

It's about time Dasti is asked to pack his bags. Preferably for jail.

Laughing (Live)Stocks - Updated

Why oh why, you may think, are we incapable of moving beyond mediocrity as a nation? Or why are we so oblivious and uncaring of people laughing at us? You may have thought that if you had chanced upon the news this evening that Jamshed Dasti - the PPP MNA from Muzaffargarh recently forced to resign his parliamentary seat by the Supreme Court for faking his academic credentials and all-round buffoon - had been appointed an adviser to the Prime Minister.

But then, you probably did not read the following story in this morning's Dawn, which would have put the whole thing into perspective for you:

Gilani’s brother in run for NA-178

By Our Correspondent

Friday, 09 Apr, 2010

        

"MUZAFFRGARH, April 8: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to award by-election ticket for NA-178 to Syed Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani, the brother of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The seat fell vacant when MNA Jamshed Dasti resigned for possessing a fake BA degree.

Local PPP MPA Irshad Sial and district PPP acting president Ashiq Baloch also confirmed the decision, while Jamshed Dasti said he was in Islamabad to meet the prime minister and the president to get the ticket for himself. He admitted that he was facing a problem in getting the PPP ticket.

After this news spread in Muzaffargarh city, supporters of Dasti staged a rally in his favour while local PPP workers and leaders hoped that Mujtaba Gilani’s election might be a blessing for the constituency in the shape of major projects.

A PPP leader said the reason for not giving ticket to Dasti was his anti-party policies. He was very vocal against party MNA and minister Hina Rabbani Khar, and once he held a press conference against Governor Salmaan Taseer.

Mujtaba Gilani will face ex-governor Mustafa Khar, Nawabzada Iftikhar Ahmed Khan and Nawab Mansoor Ahmed Khan in the election.

Sources close to Dasti said he would not leave the field and might contest as an independent candidate."

See? It all makes sense now doesn't it? Whoever said politics was not about sordid give and take? An adviser-ship on Dairy and Livestock in return for leaving the field clear for the PM's brother.

On the positive side, Jamshed Dasti is probably more at home among livestock than on the National Assembly's standing committee on sports or in any other capacity in parliament. As the Online report adds dryly, "It has been told that Dasti has vast knowledge on Dairy and Livestock matters."


: : : UPDATE : : :

I know I didn't imagine the news item since Mohammad Malick, The News' Islamabad-Rawalpindi editor has also written a scathing piece against Gilani in today's paper. But now the news of the adviser-ship is being denied by Jamshed Dasti himself. But believe it or not, the denial comes coupled with clear confirmation that he has, in fact, today been awarded a PPP ticket to contest the elections again from the same seat.

Now, technically, of course Dasti can contest the seat since the condition of parliamentary candidates being graduates has been done away with (and quite rightly!). But what message is the PPP really sending out by re-nominating a man known to have committed fraud? (Incidentally, the PPP has also given a ticket to Nazir Ahmad Jat, another MNA - formerly of the PML(Q) - who also resigned around the same time when his fake degree was challenged in court. Vehari's Nazir Jat, had earlier announced his decision to resign was because he wanted to leave the PML(Q) for the PML(N). I wonder what happened to move him into the PPP camp!)

Will this brazen move not invite calls for the cases against Dasti and Jat to be reopened and taken to their logical conclusion, i.e. conviction for fraud? As it is, I think the Supreme Court's political decision to allow Dasti a facesaving by resigning in lieu of making a legal ruling on the matter, was a bizarre exercise of judicial prerogative, which could easily be challenged in court.

And it would be interesting to find out what really went down this morning in the parliamentary party board meeting chaired by Asif Zardari. Was Gilani put on the back foot because of the sordidness of his wheeling and dealing regarding his brother's candidature? Now that his powers have been stripped as president, was Zardari sending out a message to Gilani asserting his control over the party? Does Dasti really enjoy as much grassroots worker support as is being made out? Whatever did go on at the meeting, what is clear is that this way or that, the PPP has really put its foot in it.

Two Twits Down, One To Go

This has really been a good week in some respects.

First there was news about wankmeister Zaid Zaman Hamid's long overdue comeuppance, initially at the hands of students in Peshawar and finally with a cartoonish flop show on 23rd March in Lahore. This is how Nadeem Farooq Paracha blogged about it on Dawn's website:

"For months the Zaid Hamid brigade had been congesting cyber space and the two TV channels that the haughty ideological quack is a regular fixture on, with promises of holding a ‘massive gathering of youth’ at the Minar-e-Pakistan on this year’s Pakistan Day (23rd March).

However, the no-show by Zaid and his fans at the Minar-e-Pakistan suggests the long honeymoon Mr. Hamid had been enjoying may be as good as over.

He simply failed to reach the Minar-e-Pakistan, not because he had a massive body of passionate young men with him chanting for his caliphate, but mainly due to him chickening out in the face of an announcement made by a radical Islamist group that recently named him in a police FIR for murder.

Perturbed  the articulate (but not very accurate) TV ideologue decided to hold his ‘historic’ rally at Lahore’s spacious Alhamra amphitheatre.

A man who likes posing in (passé) revolutionary attire and who it seems is always ready to pick up a Stinger missile and boldly cross into India and take-over Delhi, decided to quietly escape being at a venue where presence of a fringe group was expected.

So, the following message was fired by the man on the 23rd March: “Alhamdulillah, for tactical reasons, the venue for Takmeel e Pakistan has now been shifted to Alhamra Open Air Theatre adjacent to Gaddafi Stadium. Insha’Allah it is going to be an emotionally charged ideological, historical, earth-shaking event. Spread the message to your friends. Each one of you please do bring along a sabz hilali parcham. Be there by 3:30 p.m. Insha’Allah. PAKISTAN ZINDABAD! ONWARDS TO TAKMEEL E PAKISTAN! See you there Insha’Allah!”

Now that we know what the ‘tactical reason’ was for the sudden change of venue, what happened next was even more ‘earth shaking.’ No-one turned up.

Reports coming in from those who did decide to go, suggest that there were hardly a hundred Hamid fans present there. Funnier still was the fact that the Alhamra Hall was booked on urgent basis (by Hamid and co.) not as a venue for a rally, but for an ‘urgent marriage ceremony’!

So what happened? A figurative divorce of sorts."

You can see for yourself the "earth-shaking" event at the Alhamra:








And then today we've had news that the incompetent and afflicted-with-verbal-diarrhoea Mr Jamshed Dasti (of the Muzaffargarh PPP and chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Sports) has been forced to resign from the National Assembly after his Master's degree in Islamiat was adjudged to be fake by the Supreme Court.

The details of Mr Dasti's humiliation are rather tantalizing. Asked a series of questions by the Supreme Court hearing the challenge to his credentials, Mr Dasti managed to make even the justices cringe. Asked what were the subjects he studied for his degree and which year his degree was awarded, Mr. Dasti expressed complete ignorance. He was then asked to name the first 15 chapters of the Quran - he could not. Asked to name the first 5, he again could not. Finally asked to name at least the first and second, he replied that they were "Alhamd Sharif" (it's actually called "Sura-e-Fateha") and "Sura-e-Aal-e-Imran" (it's actually Sura-e-Baqrah, Aal-e-Imran is the third). Now, I doubt most people could name the first 15 chapters in exact order but keep in mind that the man supposedly had an MA in Islamiat. He was also asked how much 4 times 2 is, which he also apparently got wrong. After the Chief Justice told him to rethink his defence, he asked for time and ran away from the court only to have his lawyer come back and tell the court that he had submitted his resignation from the parliament.

Dasti lords his incompetence over others (Source: APP)

But dheet that he is, he still had the temerity to appear on Geo News to sheepishly say that he accepted the court's verdict and that he put his faith in God. I think his actual words were "Allah khair karay ga" (God will make everything all right). Do recall that this is the man who used to breathe fire and brimstone from the pulpit of the Sports Committee and fling around allegations like nobody's business. So not only is he a fraudster and incredibly stupid, he is also unrepentantly macho. The combination boggles the mind.

But he is not the only one who has been caught out faking his credentials. At least 3 other parliamentarians from the Punjab have resigned in the face of similar humiliation. Personally, I see no reason why this should be the end of the matter. Firstly, what about the two years' worth of salaries, allowances and perks they have managed to wangle from the people of Pakistan? The least that should be done is for these amounts to be recovered from them. But equally importantly, why should resignation from parliament be the end-all for them? They have knowingly defrauded the state of Pakistan, subverted the electoral will of the people and denied the legitimate candidates who stood against them. Even if this does not fall within the ambit of high treason, a stint of jail time is the least they should now enjoy.

You know what would make it a perfect week? If someone took a shoe to another fake fraudster, Mr Hardilazeez Twit himself.

Verbal Dasti - 2

This man is a one-man wrecking machine. I speak of course of PPP MNA from Muzaffargarh, Jamshed Dasti. The last time I wrote about him, I forgot to mention that he also has the dubious distinction of being the first MNA since the early 1970s to be removed from the National Assembly for disruptive behaviour.

I'm waiting for the exact quotes, but in the meantime, this is what Geo TV reported.

Verbal Dasti

You can always rely on PPP MNA Jamshed Dasti, who is also unfortunately the Chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Sports, to come up with a quotable turn of phrase.

Remember, this is the man who accused - without a shred of evidence one might add - the Pakistan cricket team of match-fixing the moment they lost in the ICC Champions' Trophy, which led to Younis Khan resigning as captain in a huff.

This is Mr. Dasti talking about Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ijaz Butt whose sacking he has belatedly called for  after the Sydney test match:

“He (Butt) has gone too old,” Dasti said. “Mr Butt is physically unfit, he can’t even walk properly, he can’t even see properly.”

And this from a bizarre report about the Pakistan hockey team being fined for posing for photographs with their female Liaison Officer at the Champions Challenge tournament in Argentina:

“It is not our culture to hug a lady,” said Jamshed Dasti, chairman of Pakistan’s lower house standing committee on sports.

Aah, the joys of living in Pakistan. Someone should start compiling the Dasti Book of Quotable Quotes.