In 2008, Syed Mohsin Kirmani, chairman of Mitchells Fruit Farm, instructed her daughter and well-known female journalist Jugnu Mohsin to return to her area and give time to her people.
Jugnu Mohsin’s family is one of the rich and land lord families of Pakistan. Jugnu Mohsin moved to her native constituency Shergarh on the advice of her father and till date is engaged in political activities in the same constituency.
Her ancestors are buried in Okara and her family has lived here for the past five centuries. Her father was enlightened and her mother progressive. Her father, Syed Mohsin Kirmani, sent her to a British boarding school at the age of 16. Jugnu Mohsin graduated from Cambridge University to the Bar at Law.
Jugnu Mohsin who was part of PML-N in the past, is supporting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf-backed candidate Syed Raza Ali Gillani from NA-137.
Jugnu Mohsin herself as an independent candidate defeated Syed Raza Ali Gillani in the last election. While this time, according to her, she has fielded a worker in the election on her won seat.
According to her, ‘Rai Mushtaq Kharal is an intelligent and hard worker and is always there for his people. I myself am a democrat so I submitted Rai Mushtaq Kharal’s nomination papers from pp 186. Jugnu Mohsin has been campaigning for Rai Mushtaq Kharal for the past several months.
On inquiring about the reason for fielding an ordinary political worker and activist on the won seat, Jugnu Mohsin said that she took this decision in the context of transferring powers to the lower level and giving power to the people.
She further said in this regard, ‘When the election was over, I decided that I will set an example to empower people. Because it is not enough to give people only education and health facilities. In fact, to empower the people, it is necessary to transfer power to them. So I consulted my Al Mohsin group and we all agreed on the name of Rai Mushtaq Ahmed.
Rai Mushtaq Ahmed Kharal has been elected as the Council Chairman before and is known as the most active political activist in the area. Jugnu Mohsin said that I have trained Rai Mushtaq Kharal with my own hands. Al Mohsin Group also consists of common people where we all make all our decisions together.
In this regard, Okara Press Club President Shehbaz Shaheen says that Jugnu Mohsin’s initiative is commendable, but there is another side to the story.
In fact, Ashiq Kirmani has been declared entitled to the ticket of Muslim League-N from this constituency. He has great influence in the Sharif family and it was already decided that he would get the ticket.
Jugnu Mohsin’s husband Najam Sethi had taken over the PCB chairmanship from Nawaz Sharif, so Ashiq Kirmani got the ticket instead of Jugnu Mohsin. If Jugnu Mohsin had got the PML-N ticket, and had given that ticket to a worker, then we could say that this is a major step against hereditary politics.
However, it is commendable that she is not contesting election and campaigning for her worker which is a new example in Pakistani politics. No politician does it for his worker. But Jugnu Mohsin has really won the hearts of her people.