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Mai Jori Jamali is making big news in Pakistan, and for all the right reasons. Mai Jori Jamali has decided to stand in the bye-election for PB-25 Jaffarabad-1. What makes her candidature newsworthy and even inspiring is her bio-data and the fact that she is an ordinary citizen who seeks only to improve and serve Pakistan.

Mai Jori  is the illiterate wife of a poor farmer and the mother of nine children. Her daily chores include a walk of  two kilometres to fetch water for the daily needs of her poor household. Mai Jori has lived and is living a life of sweat and toil as are the ruled of Pakistan who number in their millions, whilst the rulers and fatcats of Pakistan plunder and plot away. For Mai Jori Jamali, the rubicon has been crossed, the poor in Jaffarabad can take no more, and she has decided to make a stand. 

Mai Jori Jamali’s stand  is all the more inspiring because she hails from Ghulam Mohammed village in Baba Kot in Balochistan. Baba Kot is an area that made infamous for the burying alive three innocent Balochi women for alleged fornication. This dishonourable act was  defended as a tribal custom  by a sitting Cabinet Minister and the current Deputy Chairman of the Senate no less. The women of Baba Kot degraded and buried alive, did not die that day, rather they live on, in Mai Jori Jamali.

Mai Jori Jamali represents a new Pakistan that was born after 9 March 2007, a date which transformed Pakistan for the better three years ago today. It is a new Pakistan which seeks to rebel against the status quo and the elites who fear change and the loss of their privileges. The Mai Jori Jamali  story is all the more inspiring because she is a Balochi woman from Balochistan. 

Mai Jori Jamali is already a heroine for the poor Balochi masses and showcases a true Balochi narrative, hidden under the sad truth that Balochistan has been neglected and usurped by the powerful feudals and sardars for too long who reside in Islamabad and Quetta acting as king-makers and as the sole champions of Balochistan.  Mai Jori Jamali and ordinary Balochis like her have proved that the reality is somewhat different in Balochistan and that people seek empowerment and their ‘huqooq’ from leaders within Balochistan and without.  

Mai Jori Jamali has campaigned on providing empowerment and has led a ‘Huqooq March’ in recent days lambasting Balochistan’s feudal lords for robbing the poor of their rights. Her struggle is a noble one and merits our full support, a video clip of the the march is shared below:

Credit goes to Awab Alvi at Teeth Maestro for leading from the front on the Mai Jori Jamali story as shown here and to Adil Najam at ATP as shown here for painting the big picture on this inspiring story. Huma Yusuf covers the story in detail and writes in Dawn an excellent article which is shared below: 

Issue-based Politics by Huma Yusuf

PAKISTAN is a nation desperately in need of heroes. Our politicians dissimulate, our cricketers disappoint, and our celebrities self-destruct. It is reassuring, then, when a hero — or in this case, heroine — emerges from unlikely circumstances, giving this jaded polity something to believe in.

Largely neglected by the mainstream media, Mai Jori Jamali has been the darling of the Pakistani blogosphere this past week. She is the illiterate wife of a farmer and a mother of nine who has filed papers to contest the by-election for a vacant Balochistan Assembly seat, PB-25 Jaffarabad.

In the election, Mai Jori is up against Mir Attaullah Bulledi — an independent candidate with the support of the PML-N as well as prominent sardars and a former federal minister — and Nasir Khan Jamali, the PPP candidate (Baloch nationalist parties have boycotted the polls). Unlike her competitors, Mai Jori boasts no land-holdings, financial resources, political patrons or influence. Her campaign is supported by the Awami Party, and has been funded by contributions from her constituency. At a series of meetings with civil society activists and members of her community at the end of January, Mai Jori raised a little over Rs11,000, which she used to travel to the district headquarters, process her nomination papers and settle election fees.

Chances are, Mai Jori will lose the election. But Pakistani politicians can learn a lesson or two from her campaign, which focuses on empowering Baloch women. Rather than play up ethno-nationalist sentiment or engage in the power plays of established political parties, she has articulated a platform that forms the basis of her campaign.Mai Jori hails from Ghulam Muhammad Jamali village, which is in the same district as Baba Kot, a remote village that gained notoriety in 2008 when three women and two teenaged girls were allegedly buried alive after being shot in a series of honour killings. At the time, Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri had defended the barbaric incident by describing it as a ‘tribal custom’.

The Asian Human Rights Commission also reported that the provincial government had tried to keep the killings out of the media. Given this background, and the continuing prevalence of violence against women, Mai Jori’s candidacy is being seen as a stand against ‘customs’ that permit the routine abuse of women’s rights in the area. By framing her campaign as a rejection of violence against women, Mai Jori has earned the attention of blogs such as Teeth Maestro and All Things Pakistan, and, far more importantly, voters in her constituency. Lately, Mai Jori and her female supporters embarked on a ‘Huqooq March’ (march for rights), which entails door-to-door campaigning through a number of villages. At each stop, she has reportedly been greeted by hundreds of peasant women eager to push back against the repression that defines their lives.

The grassroots appeal of Mai Jori’s campaign is the latest in a string of telltale signs that Pakistan is readying for issue-based politics. As voters become more informed owing to higher literacy levels and pervasive media coverage, they are more interested in campaigns that seek to address specific issues and injustices. No doubt, ethno-nationalist, dynastic, faith and image-based politics (which deploy media strategies for political gain) continue to dominate the Pakistani political landscape. But the following examples suggest that a new trend is imminent. Last year, rightwing parties, including the PML-N, the Jamaat-i-Islami, and the Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), established themselves as a decisive force in the political arena by rallying around the issue of the restoration of an independent judiciary. Their ongoing popular appeal and ability at the time to join hands with unlikely partners — such as the legal community and journalists — stemmed from their focus on one concrete problem, the plight of the judiciary.

Since then, the rightwing parties have enhanced their political cache by uniting people with different political viewpoints (many of whom have open reservations about the PML-N or PTI’s ideological underpinnings) on the basis of one issue after another, from the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) to Blackwater. In this political strategy, the parties are no doubt taking a page from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, which won elections in 2002 by riding the wave of anti-Americanism that resulted from US-led attacks in Afghanistan in October 2001.

Interestingly, to counter widespread anti-American sentiment, the Obama administration too is focusing on specific issues, rather than lofty rhetoric about freedom, democracy and historic alliances. Since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to Pakistan in October last year, US officials have been emphasising Washington’s support for our energy, rather than security, needs. Ms Clinton announced a ‘signature’ $125m grant to improve energy output and efficiency, and in January, the Ministry of Water and Power was allocated $16.5m to boost the capacity of hydroelectric plants.

Separately, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has embraced issue-based politics in recent months to broaden its appeal from urban Sindh to the middle classes in Punjab and even Gilgit-Baltistan. The party has taken an unambiguous stand on issues that affect the everyday lives of Pakistanis — local government and creeping Talibanisation — and has enjoyed national prominence as a result.

The true power of issue-based politics could become apparent as political parties seek constituencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). This week, Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani reiterated that the Political Parties Act would be extended to Fata as soon as military operations in the area conclude.

There will be little currency in the tribal belt for the ethno-nationalist and dynastic politics that define Pakistan’s major political parties. To function in a region with a unique tribal and linguistic culture, political parties will have to focus on the issues that matter at the grassroots — economic development, education, health and infrastructure. If such a strategy succeeds in Fata, Pakistan may just see a shift towards issue-based politics across Pakistan. Perhaps then a woman like Mai Jori could win an election on the strength of her message.

Win or lose, Mai Jori Jamali is  the real winner for she has given hope to the poor of Pakistan.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 @ 7:04 pm on the category Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.