The power politics in Multan

LAHORE: Unlike Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Jehangir Khan Tareen is being perceived to have emerged a much stronger intra-party competitor for Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi if the political situation of past couple of years is kept in view.

In a press conference in Lahore in the presence of the Punjab governor the other day, Qureshi had expressed anger against Tareen while opposing his presence in the cabinet and other official meetings that made it clear that all is not well within the PTI.

On the other hand, Tareen responded with a tweet of ‘I don’t care’, and stated he was only answerable to Imran Khan. Not only this, many noted figures associated with the central and Punjab government including Fawad Chaudhry, Faisal Vawda, Nauman Langrial and Shaukat Laleka support Tareen, but eventually Prime Minister Imran Khan restrained ministers from speaking on this issue.

According to party insiders, the main cause of “tussle” between Shah Mehmood Qureshi, foreign minister, and Jehangir Khan Tareen, former secretary general of PTI, originates from the region of Multan where the latter has been using his influence over local politics.

Qureshi’s unexpected defeat on a Punjab Assembly seat that faded his chances to become chief minister of Punjab besides alleged opposition from Tarin’s group in the PTI to prevent Zain Qureshi, son of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, from becoming a state minister have been the main reasons behind the ongoing intra-party tussle between the two top stalwarts of Imran Khan.

Qureshi has been a political activist since 1983 when he started his political career from the local body politics. He was elected as MPA in 1985, 1988 and 1990 general elections. He also served as provincial minister in the cabinets of Nawaz Sharif and Ghulam Hyder Wyne. Between 1983 and 1993, he remained associated with Muslim League. He had a competition with another Muslim Leaguer from Multan, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, over both political and spiritual matters. By 1993, Shah Mehmood Qureshi joined the PPP. He became an MNA after defeating PML-N candidate Makhdoom Javed Hashmi. He lost the 1997 general election, but was elected district nazim of Multan in 2001. In 2002, he was elected as an MNA on a PPP ticket. In 2002 and 2008 general elections, he defeated Makhdoom Javed Hashmi with big margins. In 2012, after developing differences with the PPP leadership, Qureshi joined the PTI. Within months, Hashmi also joined the PTI. Hashmi eventually left the party after voicing his differences with the PTI chief during party’s massive sit-in (dharna) in 2014.

According to sources, Qureshi had complete influence over the PTI in Multan and many other districts of Southern Punjab like Khanewal and Bahawalpur until 2014.

The real test started for Qureshi over intra-party elections and later over the issue of awarding tickets and accepting different political groups in the party fold before the general elections of 2018 as Jehangir Tareen emerged as an active lobbyist in bringing many influential groups of Southern Punjab to the PTI.

It is pertinent to mention here that in 2017, Qureshi had stated publicly that it was not acceptable for him to ask for a party ticket from Tareen. Later, in the period between April 2018 and July 2018, Tareen was spotted almost in every ceremony when members of noted political groups of Southern Punjab — Dareshaks, Legharis, Khosas or others — joined the PTI.

In the 2018 general elections, the PTI, like in many other districts of Southern Punjab, almost made a clean sweep in Multan as it won all six National Assembly and 10 out of 13 Punjab Assembly seats. However, at the same time, Multan witnesses a major upset when an independent candidate, Sheikh Salman Naeem, defeated Qureshi on a Punjab Assembly seat. Having won that seat, Qureshi could have been a potential PTI figure for the slot of CM. The group of Qureshi in the district cast doubts on Tareen over the victory of Sheikh Salman Naeem, who belongs to Mohajir fraternity of the district.

Moreover, what added to the prevailing tension was the immediate contact by Tareen with Sheikh Salman Naeem whom he brought to the PTI fold. This way, the candidate who defeated the senior vice chairman of the PTI became part of the same party within days of winning the polls. Later, at the time of cabinet formation, sources stated that Qureshi agreed to accept the responsibility of speaker, National Assembly, and wanted the party to nominate his son Zain Qureshi as state minister for Foreign Affairs. However, the sources stated, on objections raised by Tareen and former CM Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervaiz Khattak, it was not done.

In Punjab, Sardar Usman Buzdar took oath as CM with complete backing of Tareen whom most of the party members dubbed as the actual chief minister of Punjab. This also created differences within ranks of the party. Many newly-elected independent candidates were seen travelling in the jet of Tareen and most of them were inducted in the Punjab cabinet, either as ministers or advisors.

In the October 2018 by elections, the PTI lost a seat in Multan it had won in the general elections on which the group of Qureshi criticized Tareen for not consulting the local leadership over the issue of awarding tickets.

Local PTI activists close to Qureshi believe that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf suffered a setback in PP-222 due to the romance between the PTI leadership and the Junoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaz. In the July 2018 general elections, PP-222 had been secured by PTI's Ghulam Abbas Khaki who died shortly after winning the election.

Tareen, who was already very active in the merger of the Junoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaz with the PTI, allegedly used his influence and awarded ticket to Sohail Noon, brother of MNA Rana Qasim Noon, while denying the ticket to the widow of the late Ghulam Abbas Khaki.

Sohail Noon suffered defeat at the hands of independent candidate Qasim Khan Langah who was backed by the PML-N. Till date, Qasim has attained an independence status. The reason behind the defeat of the PTI candidate were the votes bagged by the widow of Ghulam Abbas Khaki, who got over 20,000 votes. The PTI supporters from Multan complained that the ticket was awarded to the candidate without consulting the local leadership that caused the defeat.

Now in the latest by-election that was held a few days ago on a provincial seat falling under the NA seat of Qureshi, the PTI emerged victorious with a margin of around 6,000 votes. Malik Wasif Mazhar Raan, son of former MPA Mazhar Raan, won from there while bagging around 45,000 votes against PPP candidate Malik Arshed Raan who got around 39,000 votes. The group of Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Multan, according to sources, has criticized the rival group for giving an ‘under hand’ support to the joint PPP, PML-N candidate to deprive the PTI of this seat.

Another interesting situation is likely to emerge in the coming days if PP-217, the seat won by Sheikh Salman Naeem against Qureshi, falls vacant after a court verdict. The case of this seat is pending in court. If the seat falls vacant and elections are announced on it, another tug of war is expected between Qureshi and Tareen over the issue of ticket.

The News tried to contact Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi but he was not available for comment. His son, Zain Qureshi, who is also a sitting MNA from Multan while talking to The News stated that there existed no ‘tussle’ between Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Tareen. He said Shah Mehmood had only taken a principled stance on the presence of Tareen in official meeting.

Citing the press conference of his father at the Governor House recently, he said Shah Mehmood termed Jehangir Khan Tareen the ‘ asset’ of the party and had only stated that when he (Tareen sb) attends the official meeting, PML-N starts criticizing the government.

To a question related to the influence of Jehangir Khan Tareen in Multan politics and his special support to MPA Sheikh Salman Naeem who defeated Shah Mehmood Qureshi on a provincial assembly seat, Zain Qureshi stated that this started before the 2018 polls.

Zain Qureshi stated all PTI members had submitted affidavits that they would respect the decision of leadership and none of them would contest against the party ticket holder in case one was denied ticket.

Zain said Sheikh Salman Naeem violated this rule, and filed nomination papers against the Senior Vice Chairman of PTI, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, contested against him and won.

Soon after Sheikh’s win, Zain said, Tareen Sahib visited him and brought him into the party without consulting the party’s Vice Chairman who was also the party ticket holder from this seat. He said this was ‘disrespect’ to the party that its ticket holder who is also one of the senior most office bearers was not consulted over this issue.

Regarding differences of Shah Mehmood Qureshi with Makhdum Javed Hashmi while both were the part of PTI, Zain said that both of them contested elections against each other while they were in rival parties. He said that later both of them became the part of PTI and remained together and there never had been differences between them in the party.

Zain Qureshi maintained that he himself remained in the forefront in the by-election campaign of Jehangir Tareen in 2015, which he won from Lodhran.

Zain Qureshi also said his father never used his influence to make him the state minister for foreign affairs, adding that the reality was the other way round. He said Shah Mehmood Qureshi actually opposed his (Zain’s) inclusion in the committee on foreign affairs.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi never intended to become the National Assembly Speaker.

Former PTI Secretary General Jehangir Khan Tareen when contacted said that MPA Salman Naeem was inducted in party on the instructions of party Chairman Imran Khan as the PTI needed numbers to form government in Punjab. While responding to a question about the defeat of PTI in a by poll in October 2018, a seat that it won in general elections said that ticket was awarded to Sohail Noon as per the party policy after his name was recommended by the local MNA.