Singer Jawad Ahmed urges voters to ‘lose their chains’ in general elections

While every day is a carnival for capitalists and feudals alike, it is the working class that keeps the society going with the sweat of their brow, said noted vocalist and Barabari Party of Pakistan Chairman Jawad Ahmed.

The masses toil day and night, languishing in misery and poverty while the rich profit from their hard work, he said while speaking at a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Thursday.

Ahmed, who is contesting in the upcoming general elections from NA-246 against Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, highlighted a crying need for reforms and eliminating the mafias that rule over various aspects of society. He also expressed outrage over the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few.

Referring to the electorate of Lyari, the singer said that their problems were the same as the rest of Karachi and of Pakistan. He outlined them as water scarcity, lack of steady electricity, education, healthcare, employment, housing, food, clothing, security, and justice.

Terming the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) a party of the feudals, Ahmed said that the minimum wage in Sindh remained at Rs15,000 a month for years and the party that professed to be fighting for the poor, had not bothered to have the amount increased despite their long tenure in the province.

The chairman promised that if voted to power, he would right this wrong done to the people of Sindh. He lamented that filthy rich feudals and exploiting capitalists would never pass legislations for benefit of the peasants.

“They draft legislations in accordance with their personal aims and interests,” he complained, adding that it would be utterly futile to think that the rich would ever promote the interests of the masses.

The election process calls for pots and pots of money thereby disadvantaging genuine representatives of the masses given the gigantic expenses that need to be undertaken,” he said.

Talking about the problems of Lyari in particular, Ahmed said that the crippling water shortage was the most pressing issue of the locality. He pointed out that poverty in the area was on the rise, deadly warfare was rampant and that despite a state clampdown in the area, things were simmering under the surface.

The chairman said that the people of Lyari lived under sub-human conditions as there were many families with five or six members cramped up in a one-room dwelling. He warned that rioting and disturbance of law and order situation would continue in the area as long as poverty was prevalent and basic facilities eluded the people.

Ahmed said that if voted to the legislature, he would endeavour to have the laws on election expenses rationalised so as to make it possible for the less affluent to represent their constituency in the parliament. He added that his topmost priority would be to have the basic facilities made available to the poor.