The man who trounced Fazl weeps on backbenches

ISLAMABAD: A young PPP MNA, who thrashed JUI veteran Maulana Fazlur Rehman by about 40,000 votes, will now sit on the backbenches while the defeated Maulana will again be a minister in the PPP-led coalition cabinet.

Faisal Kundi, who was educated in London and was specially groomed by Benazir to beat Maulana Fazlur Rehman, appears to be the first casualty of the Zardari-Fazl romance, thanks to the ironies of coalition politics.

Last year, Benazir Bhutto had particularly sent this young graduate from London with the mission to defeat the MMA leader and this young man fulfilled her wish, though after her death.

Now with the changing situation, Kundi is facing taunts from his voters as he had assured them he would politically eliminate the chief supporter of Taliban.

Despite suffering a massive defeat at the hands of this young man, Fazlur Rehman is now having the last laugh as he successfully got a promise from Zardari to get his party in the future cabinet in the name of "reconciliation".

Faisal, who was expecting a ministerial job at Islamabad as a reward after defeating the JUI leader, is now puzzled as he would be sitting on the backbenches like an ordinary MNA. Kundi is practically hiding from his voters in Islamabad, as he keeps on receiving phone calls from his constituency.

Maulana Fazl, trying to pressurise Benazir Bhutto to withdraw him from Dera Ismail Khan, in return offered Benazir Bhutto to withdraw the MMA candidate from Larkana. Benazir Bhutto, at one stage, had seriously started considering withdrawing Kundi in her bid to ensure her return to parliament. But, when Kundi argued that he was in a position to win the seat quite comfortably, Benazir also agreed so that she could tell the Western countries that her party had defeated the chief supporter of Taliban.

Secondly, she wanted to eliminate Fazl’s chances of manipulation to become the prime minister with the help of the establishment.

The Maulana, who knew that he would not win against the popular Kundi, also tried his connections with Asif Zardari to get Faisal out of the way. But once again, Kundi presented his case before Zardari and succeeded in staying in the race.

Faisal used to tell his party leaders that he would defeat the mighty Maulana with a margin of 35,000 votes. Many used to laugh over his claim but when the results came, everybody was shocked to see how a young London graduate had trounced the MMA leader.

The young man now is being sacrificed at the altar of reconciliation and pragmatic coalition politics of national consensus.

Talking to The News, Faisal confirmed that he was facing taunts and sarcastic comments from his voters who had voted for him in the name of change in the area.

He sounded very disappointed over the developments taking place as he did not know whether he would be given any position in the cabinet to fulfill the promises he had made with his voters to defeat the MMA leader.

(http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=101103)