Day 5: Disappointment in the land of Ranjha

Locations: Rabwa, Takhat Hazara, Miana Gondal, Pind Makko, Miani, Bhera

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I had selected village Takhat Hazara as a stopover for two reasons. One, because this was home to the fabled hero of the Punjabi love story, Heer Ranjha. Just out of curiosity, I wanted to have a look at this great lover's home. But I got carried away; matching fantasies with realities is never a good idea. It was frustrating.

The dirt poor village has no signs of the past, except a few small structures that you can find anywhere. Moreover, it took no pride in being Ranjha's home. There should have been a monument, however small or simple.

My other reason for selecting this as a stopover also met the same fate. To date I had passed through constituencies where politics was mostly dominated by biradaris that had migrated from Indian Punjab in 1947 and I could workout some commonalities. I now wanted to visit constituencies where the leaders are old inhabitants to see whether and how they are different. This could also help me test my hypotheses about the political choices and behaviours of migrated clans.

I thought that this village, situated right on the bank of river Chenab, is an old historic locality and thus pre-Partition inhabitants must be in majority here. Master Jamil, a retired teacher of the village, told me that the majority is of migrants, most of them called themselves qasai, butchers. They buy livestock from herdsmen living along the river bank or elsewhere and sell these to meet traders in other cities.

They say that it is your own expectation that fails you and not the deeds of others. So after my abject failure, I tried to meet the real Takhat Hazara, and it wasn't happy with itself either.

The village missed the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway by around 15 kilometres. For ages, the main source of livelihood in the area has been land. The Motorway had offered a brand new economic opportunity but the closer the locality was to its course, the greater was its ability to benefit from the opportunity. So, some were lucky while others are still in remorse.

Bad luck turned into a curse in the year 2000, when the village saw anti-Ahmadi riots. Six of them were killed and another six of the other party were later given life imprisonment. Many businesses closed down and families migrated elsewhere.

Takhat Hazara again, narrowly missed the Sial-Phalia road that connects the Sial interchange on the Motorway with Phalia Town, which is a junction of roads leading to other important cities like Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin. The Sial-Phalia road passes by Halalpur, which the residents of Takhat Hazara think is progressing.

The sole political demand of this village now is a bridge over river Chenab that could connect the Wazirabad Road with the Sial-Phalia Road. The two run parallel to each other along the two banks of the river. The villagers believe that this will bring back life to this decaying village; and who else can they trust with their demand than the king of roads, also known as Nawaz Sharif?

Ranjha's village.

Earlier, I had breakfast under the shadow of four military generals, well, actually their very large portraits displayed on the walls of a small halwa-puri vendor in Chiniot. It was a very dark place further darkened by loadshedding and I could not take a picture. These were paintings of Ayub, Zia, Noor Khan and Musa Khan. A bold political statement but the young man running the shop did not want to discuss it.

The party nominations are all finalised and the candidates have kickstarted their campaigns. I overheard some ruthless bad mouthing of candidates by idle tea sippers. The two estranged brothers, Manazar Ali Ranjha and Mazhar Ali Ranjha, competed with each other for a PML-N ticket for the same seat. The one who finally got it is now being accused of giving much more 'donation' to the party than his poorer brother!

There was some discussion at another place about 'the package' being offered by various candidates to their campaigners – rupees 200,000 in cash with a 70 cc motorcycle, as the fringe benefit, was the base price. Not bad for a month-long job, can't be more hectic than the Motorcycle Diaries!

Money is a hot topic and when 'the news' is passed from one to another person, I am sure no one forgets to add a zero or two at the end of every number.

Gossip shops.

After taking a round of village Bhabhra, I stopped at Miana Gondal. I now had entered a different constituency, NA 64. Since the campaign has started, I wanted to attend a village jalsa. But the problem was that you could not know in advance the when and where of this micro event.

I contacted the local representative of the PPP's candidate here and asked him to let me join him briefly to see the campaign. He initially showed some willingness but latter dodged me. Another campaigner advised me to instead go to the candidate's own dera at Pind Makko. I reached it to discover that it was empty as all of them were already in field. I called many of them but they would evade me.

Someone told me of a jalsa going on in village Miani. When I reached there it was already over and when I decided to call it a day, the day was already over. It was dark and I was advised not to travel on the easier Rato Kala - Bhera Road for it was infested with criminals and instead take the safer but, longer road from Pind Makko to Bhera via village Miani. It was pitch dark and the narrow road was completely empty.

Dera PPP candidate NA64, Nadeem Afzal Chan, at Pind Makko.

My bigger worry was, however, that I could not accomplish what I intended to. I did not understand this attitude until the next morning when two campaigners of another candidate also backtracked from their earlier commitment to let me accompany them on a campaign trail. Then, an older supporter helped me, starting with 'let me say it the jat way', he said they are apprehensive about my intentions. They have just passed through the hard 62-63 test and do not want to invite trouble regarding any violation of campaign code being reported. I realised that the code was being violated everywhere and by everyone. But can this code be observed?

My views on the code and campaign laws:

Does size matter? Where does the buck stop? An unrealistic law

There are quite large brick kilns on Miani-Bhera road. I stopped at one of these and despite the omnipresence of an obstructive munshi, was able to learn a little bit about the most destitute of the labour. They are paid too little and are not free to move as they owe the brick kiln owners amounts in debt. Their owners also ensure that they do not reside at one location for too long as this might help the laborers develop a social network which they find counter productive.

Since they remain on the move, they are mostly unable to exercise their voting rights. But an equally bigger menace is our beloved identity card. Every passing day, I find evidence of NADRA's ignorance or its staff's callousness depriving the marginalised and the poor of their basic citizenship rights, including voting rights.

If possessing a card is so essential to upgrade a natural person to a legal citizen, then shouldn't it be the responsibility of NADRA to issue it to every person? Under the current legality, NADRA's duty is to issue the card only to 'an applicant', following a set criteria and procedure and if someone falls short, it is none of the Authority's worries, howsoever debilitating may it be for the other party. The onus of responsibility must shift on to NADRA and it should be bound to find a solution to every legal problem.

Watch what this family of brick kiln workers with four votes has to say: