GUJRAT: Nawabzada family, the oldest political dynasty of Gujrat, may once again face a challenging situation following the return of former federal minister Chaudhary Wajahat Hussain to the PML-Q folds and the party’s possible seat adjustment with the PML-N in Gujrat district.

Earlier, in 2012 the Nawabzada family had left their decades-long affiliation with the PPP after the party had forged a coalition government with the PML-Q in the Centre.

Since Nawabzada family has been the arch rivals of the Chaudharys of PML-Q in Gujrat for long and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gull and Chaudhary Wajahat Hussain have been contesting from the same National Assembly constituency NA-68 (Jalalpur Jattan-Tanda), there is an apprehension that the former can lose the PML-N ticket in the constituency in case of a seat adjustment. Chaudhry Hussain Elahi, son of Wajahat, had won the seat in 2018 through a seat adjustment with the PTI.

Nawabzada Mazhar Ali and Nawabzada Haider Mehdi had won national and provincial assemblies seats on the PML-N tickets in 2013 by defeating Wajahat and Shujaat Nawaz of the PML-Q, respectively.

However, with the return of Wajahat Hussain and his sons, the PML-Q chief Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain has got some plolitical mileage in his hometown as Wajahat has always been a key political player in advancing the family’s local politics.

On the other hand, the development may have lasting effects on the local politics of Gujrat, prompting the political players to go for realignments ahead of the next election.

Responding to a question in the backdrop of Wajahat’s return to Q league, and the possible seat adjustment in Gujrat, Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gull, the political head of Nawabzada family, says it is too early to speculate and react.

He further said that his family stands with the PML-N and enjoys a special and long-standing relationship with the party leadership. But, he reiterated the traditional stance of the family that they would never leave their constituencies uncontested and for the time being wait for things to unfold.

Wajahat Hussain and his son Musa Elahi had been facing different cases registered in various police stations of Gujrat and Lahore over alleged firing on the PML-N men in Kotla and Karianwala and both have been on bail from the courts in Gujrat and Gujranwala in these cases.

Moreover, his son MNA Hussain Elahi has also been abroad for the last more than three months, whereas a number of their personal staff members had gone “missing”, returning after several weeks of disappearance.

Some local sympathisers of the Chaudhry family say the division among Chaudhry brothers had also put their well wishers into a testing situation, adding that unity among the family would augur well for them, as well as the PML-Q leadership itself.

Seat adjustment may cost the local PML-N cadres heavily, putting the future politics of the party’s former lawmakers like ex-MPA Haji Nasir Mehmood from Gujrat city, Nawabzada family and the Kotla group of MNA Abid Raza at risk as the Chaudhrys could dominate the local politics and administrative affairs of Gujrat, as they did with the PTI and the PPP in the past, says a former PML-N lawmaker, commenting on the developments.

He says so far the PML-N leadership has not taken the local party cadres into confidence with regard to seat adjustment in Gujrat, where the party had clinched three out of four NA and seven out of eight PA seats in 2013 election.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2023