Ayaz Sadiq: Yet another Arain legislator wins from Lahore

LAHORE: Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, yet another scion of Lahore’s politically dominant Arain family, has emerged triumphant in a crucial ballot contest, ably and visibly supported by the Kashmiri clan, of course.
Ayaz Sadiq has won the NA-122 election just five days ahead of his 61st birthday.
An exclusive research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows that the Arain and Kashmiri communities have spearheaded the power politics in Lahore district since independence.
With the exceptions of Malik Shaukat and Syed Hadi Ali Shah, all the elected Lord Mayors of Lahore since 1947 have either been Kashmiris or Arains.
Mian Ameerud Din, father-in-law of Allama Iqbal’s youngest daughter Muneera Bano, was the first elected Kashmiri Mayor of Lahore after partition.
Other Arain and Kashmiri Lord Mayors include the likes of Mian Abdul Aziz, Mian Mushtaq Ahmed, Chaudhary Abdul Kareem, Chaudhary Kaleemud Din, Mian Shujaur Rehman, Mian Abdul Majeed, Mian Azhar, Khawaja Riaz Mehmood, Khawaja Ahmed Hassan and Mian Amir Mehmood (Lahore’s former Nazim).
It goes without saying that while a renowned pre-partition political stalwart Mian Shah Din and Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi (Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in British India) had played a distinguished part in Pakistan Muslim League’s politics before 1947 and had supported Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, country’s first Chief Justice Mian Abdul Rasheed was also an Arain hailing from the Baghbanpura locality of the city.
While assuming charge as Pakistan’s first Governor General, Quaid-e-Azam had taken oath from Justice Mian Abdul Rasheed.
Though Dr. Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal was a noted Kashmiri resident of Lahore, Pakistan’s first Cricket captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar was an Arain, and so was Justice Mian Shah Din Humayun (the first Muslim Judge in British India), we will only be discussing people who were (or who are) somehow connected to Lahore’s politics and polling exercises, because if we start naming the eminent Arain or Kashmiri businessmen, national politicians, sportsmen, doctors, engineers, journalists, writers, judges, lawyers and Army generals etc—it
might take a book to list all those illustrious personalities and their national contributions.
It is imperative to note that Pakistan’s fourth Prime Minister Chaudhary Muhammad Ali (1905-1980) was also an Arain, who was a student of Punjab University Lahore. He had served as the country’s Chief Executive between 1955 and 1956.
It should also be noted that during the December 1970 general elections, a prominent Sindhi Arain and former Pakistani Premier/President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had defeated the late Justice (R) Javid Iqbal (a Kashmiri) from a Lahore National Assembly constituency.
Bhutto had mustered 78,132 votes and Justice Javid Iqbal could pocket 33,921 votes only.
Since 1947 and even much before that, numerous Arain and Kashmiri politicians had played a pivotal role in Lahore district’s adventurous and eventful politics.
Some of the other well-known Arains and Kashmiris, who had or are still featuring in Lahore’s political arena, include:
The 1937 Member of Punjab Legislative Assembly, Begum Jahan Ara Shahnawaz (daughter of Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi and wife of Sir Mian Muhammad Shah Nawaz), Muhammad Sultan (the 1862 Member of Lahore’s First Municipal Committee and the Kashmiri contractor who had supplied bricks for the construction of the city’s Mian Meer cantonment during the British rule in the 1850s), Mian Aminuddin (the Kashmiri politician who had contested election in 1937 on a Unionist ticket from the walled city of Lahore on a Muslim Assembly seat, former Punjab Chief Minister Hanif Ramay (Arain), Chaudhary Muhammad Hussain Lahori (Vice Chairman Lahore Municipal Corporation and member National Assembly during the Ayub Khan regime), Mian Iftikharuddin and his son Arif Iftikhar (the Arain politicians-cum-owners of the historic Pakistan Times and Imroze newspapers), sitting Premier Mian Nawaz Sharif (Kashmiri), former Punjab Governor Chaudhary Sarwar and one of his predecessors Mian Muhamad Azhar (Arain), Mian Abdul Waheed (Arain), Benazir Bhutto (Arain), Mian Umer Hayat (Arain), Tariq Aziz (Arain), late Tariq Banday (Kashmiri), Shahbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz (Kashmiri), Khawaja Saad Rafique (Kashmiri), Jahengir Badar (Arain), Khawaja Ahmed Tariq Rahim (Kashmiri), Ishaq Dar (Kashmiri), Mian Usman (Arain), Mian Muneer (Arain), Haji Asghar (Arain), Meher Zulfikar Babu (Arain), Khalid Javed Ghurki (Arain), Ashiq Dayal (Arain), late Salman Taseer (Kashmiri), Khalid Latif Kardar (Kashmiri), Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman (Kashmiri), Mian Abdul Sattar (Arain), Mian Salahuddin and his son Mian Yousaf Salahuddin (Kashmiri), Hafiz Sulman Butt (Kashmiri), Sohail Zia Butt (Kashmiri), Pervaiz Saleh (Kashmiri), late Haji Maqsood Ahmad Butt (Kashmiri), Mian Muhammad Rafi (Arain), Mian Marajddin of Crown Bus Service (Arain), Azizur Rehman Chann, Mian Muhammad Ishaq (Arain), Sheikh Rohail Asghar (Kashmiri Sheikh), Rohail’s deceased father Sheikh Asghar and late brother Sheikh Shakeel Asghar, Mian Zakaur Rehman (Arain), lawmaker Naseer Ahmed Bhutta and Pervaiz Malik (Arain) etc.
Research further shows that although the population of Arains in Lahore district was 94,464 in 1881, the number of Kashmiris was far less.
In fact, the first Kashmiri organisation was founded at Lahore in the 1890s.