An MPA from Khanewal repeating history

LAHORE: It may be a twist of fate that the dissident PML-N MPA Dr Nishat Daha once formed a forward bloc in the PPP in Punjab Assembly eight years ago after meeting the then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif.

In February 2012, just a month before the Senate elections, a group of PPP MPAs led by Nishat Daha called on Shahbaz Sharif and joined the PML-N due to which, the PPP also suffered a setback in Senate polls when it lost a very secure seat of its stalwart Ch Aslam Gill.

At that time, the PML-N leadership had warmly received the PPP dissidents and also awarded them party tickets in the next general elections of 2013.

Now, once again, history is repeating itself when the same MPA Dr Nishat Daha, who got elected on the ticket of the PML-N in 2018 general elections, has called on the incumbent Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and assured him of his loyalty.

In the year 2012, Dr Nishat Daha, who belongs to Khanewal, had led a group of MPAs from the same district that included Jameel Shah and Rana Babar, who switched to the PML-N. In the year 2020, eight years after that episode, the PML-N is at the losing end now as its two MPAs from district Khanewal including Dr Nishat Daha and Faisal Niazi have assured loyalty to the chief minister while expressing complete confidence in his leadership.

Another interesting aspect relating to district Khanewal is that on different occasions in history, legislators have ditched their parent parties on whose tickets they got elected.

A similar precedent was witnessed in 2002 when from district Khanewal, Raza Hayat Hiraj, who got elected as MNA on the ticket of PPP while defeating former National Assembly speaker Syed Fakhar Imam, joined the forward bloc of the PPP and turned his coat towards the PML-Q. At that time, the PPP had emerged as the major party with largest number of seats in the National Assembly but the then establishment backed party the PML-Q had to form a dissident group in People’s Party in the name of PPP-Patriots. With the support of PPP-Patriot Group, the PML-Q candidate Zafarullah Khan Jamali was elected as prime minister of the country with a narrow margin.

In 2008, soon after the PML-N formed the government, a forward bloc in the ranks of the PML-Q, which had won 84 seats in the Punjab Assembly, emerged. From the same district, the MPAs like Amir Hiraj and Ghulam Jaffer Sargana, who got elected on the tickets of the PML-Q, ditched their party and joined the forward bloc to support the PML-N.

Now while the PTI is in power, from the same district, two of the sitting PML-N MPAs Dr Nishat Daha and Faisal Niazi are part of the PML-N forward bloc and supporting the ruling party.

“I am still the part of the PML-N, they can expel me if they want to do so,” said Dr Nishat Daha while talking to The News. He said in 2012 when he met the then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif as the sitting MPA of the PPP, he wasn’t willing to contest the next general elections. He said it was the PML-N leadership that convinced him to contest the polls on the ticket of their party. “I have met Buzdar because in the interest of the people of my constituency,” he added.

He said he had 64 years long relationship with the family of Usman Buzdar whose father was not only his college fellow but also remained colleague in the Punjab Assembly. Besides, he said Buzdar’s family belongs to district Khanewal, where it has land holding and there was no issue if he had met the chief minister.