ISLAMABAD – Sardar Usman Buzdar, the PTI’s chief minister nominee is anadvocate and a landlord by profession. Born in May 1969, in the tribalstretch of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab, Buzdar is the eldest of five brothersand sisters.
While he received his early education from his family village, Barthi, helater enrolled at Multan’s Bahauddin Zakariya University for a masters inpolitical science and then completed an LLB.
Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Buzdar, his father, served as a Grade 14 teacherat a local school, but soon took a liking for politics. He was elected tothe provincial assembly three times from DG Khan – 1985-88, 2002-2007 and2008-2013 – as a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
In the meantime, the younger Buzdar was also kick-starting his ownpolitical career. In August 2001, when Pakistan held local bodies electionunder General Pervez Musharraf, he managed to secure the position of nazim(local elected official) twice and stayed affiliated with his father’sparty. But in the 2013 general polls, he contested for a provincialassembly constituency, from the Pakistan Muslim League-N platform, and lost.
In May, Buzdar switched parties again. Using the Janoobi Punjab Suba Mahazmovement, he and several other South Punjab members of national andprovincial assembly defected from the PML-N to its rival PTI. On July 25,he won PP-286 (DG Khan) with over 26,000 votes.
In a video message, delivered late last night, Imran Khan said the advocatewas chosen because he hails from the most impoverished area of Punjab.“These people have no water, no electricity, no hospitals. People there areliving in the stone ages.” The village Barthi, in the tribal belt of DGKhan, is deprived of all basic facilities.
The population of 300,000 has no access to clean drinking water,electricity, proper roads and neither does it have a single college. Eventhough uranium deposits were mined from the adjoining villages of Nanganaiand Taunsa to give Pakistan its first nuclear bomb.
Khan further added that Buzdar does not even have electricity at his ownhome. As unbelievable as that may sound, it is true.
His home in the tribal areas has no power like the rest of the homes in thevillage. But his family owns another house in the city of DG Khan, wherehis wife and three daughters live. That residence is equipped with basicutilities.