Fortune favours Pervaiz Elahi yet another time

LAHORE: Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has become the second figure in the history of Punjab sworn in as Chief Minister for second term after serving as the Custodian of the House, the Speaker.

Before him, Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo has served as Speaker for three terms and later as Chief Minister Punjab, twice as elected CM and once after the court restored him to office. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the present CM of Punjab and the main ally of PTI in Punjab served as Speaker Punjab Assembly between February 1997 and October 1999. After this, he became Chief Minister of Punjab in the era of Pervez Musharraf and held the office between 2002 and 2007. Other than him, Shehbaz Sharif, Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo are the political figures who have served as CM for two terms or more. But Manzoor Wattoo and Pervaiz Elahi have also served as the custodian of the House and held the office of PA Speaker for two more or more terms. In his political journey, luck has favoured Pervaiz Elahi on multiple occasions and once again, at the age of 76, he has become the CM of Punjab from quite unexpected circumstances.

Starting his political career from local body politics and later getting elected as Member of Punjab Assembly for six consecutive terms, including 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2002, he held important offices like Provincial Minister for Local Bodies, acting Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly (while Shehbaz Sharif was abroad), Speaker Punjab Assembly in 1997-99 Chief Minister Punjab between 2002 to 2008, Opposition leader in National Assembly in 2008 (till Ch Nisar took over), PA Speaker between 2018 and 22 and once again the CM Punjab. Although Pervaiz Elahi had witnessed a testing phase in his political career during Tehreek-e-Nijat against PPP government in 1995 and 1996, but between 2008 and 2022, his political career witnessed many ups and downs and on many occasions, some political observers even predicted end to his political career. However, he has turned out to be a lucky politician as on many occasions, he brought PMLQ to power despite attaining a very thin representation in Parliament or facing revolts within his party cadres in form of the unification bloc. In the 2008, when general elections were held after the tragic assassination of PPP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, his party, PMLQ was worst to suffer. A party that witnessed a boom for nearly a decade while Sharifs were in exile and Musharraf was in power had a nightmarish situation in 2008 polls. In the National Assembly, PMLQ headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein and Pervaiz Elahi could win only 54 seats whereas PPP with 127 seats and PMLN with 91 seats formed the government. In Punjab, PMLQ had won 84 seats and under the same formula, PMLN and PPP formed the government here. Worst was to follow for PMLQ as within a few days after the February 2008 elections, some MPAs of Punjab, including Mian Atta Maneka, Najaf Abbas Sial, Col (Rtd) Abbas formed a forward bloc and in next few months, around 60 MPAs elected on PMLQ tickets were in PMLN's camp. At that time, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi held the office of Opposition Leader in National Assembly but when the PMLN parted ways with PPP, he lost that office and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan replaced him.

However, in Punjab, PPP was still in alignment with PMLN but PMLQ was denied the office of Opposition Leader which also had to head the Public Accounts Committee. An effort was also made by the unification bloc to attain the status of the Parliamentary Party to deprive the actual status to their parent party PMLQ. However, this was not done and eventually, Pervaiz Elahi succeeded in getting the slot of Opposition leader for his stalwart Chaudhry Zaheer-ud-Din who held this office till 2011 when PPP quit coalition and decided to sit in Opposition, Raja Riaz became the Opposition leader.

In the year 2011, PMLQ had another testing phase with the emergence of PTI as a prominent political party and in that point of time, it had become the major loser as most of its stalwarts from Punjab, including Ghulam Abbas, Abdul Aleem Khan, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri and many more joined Imran Khan's bandwagon. By that time, no one could even think of that Pervaiz Elahi would be seen in a new political role and it happened in 2012 when MQM, an ally of PPP quit the government and the government was about to fall when the then President Asif Ali Zardari contacted PMLQ leadership and offered it to join the government.

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, whose party was facing political decline all of a sudden became the Deputy Prime Minister of the country. In return, his reconciliation with PPP saved the Peoples Party government from fall and it completed the term.

In the 2013 general elections, PMLQ could win only eight seats in Punjab but very soon, it became the ally of PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek which eventually became the reason of 126 days Dharna of Imran Khan at D Chowk, Islamabad. This alignment with PTI helped PMLQ in 2018 general elections as his party, in electoral alliance with PTI survived on the seats where it was contesting.

Noted figures of Chaudhry family, including Pervaiz Elahi himself won the elections. His son Chaudhry Moonis Elahi and two nephews Chaudhry Salik Hussein and Chaudhry Hussein Elahi became MNA.

With only 10 seats in Punjab, Pervaiz Elahi became the Speaker and three MPAs, including Ammar Yasir and Bau Rizwan whereas PMLQ also got the Public Accounts Committee slot in form of Sajid Khan Bhatti as its head.

In the Federal Cabinet, being the ally of PTI, PMLQ also got two ministries in form of Tariq Bashir Cheema and Moonis Elahi.

When the trouble started for PTI in mid-2021 when parliamentarians elected on Imran's ticket revolted against him to express support to Jehangir Tareen, many speculations started doing rounds about Pervaiz Elahi's future political course. PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif himself came to meet Pervaiz Elahi and offered him the slot of CM Punjab. For the first time in the history, the division in Chaudhry family came to surface and his own nephew, son of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein joined PMLN camp and became the ally of Shehbaz Sharif government. He took oath as the Federal Minister but Chaudhry Moonis Elahi took a firm stand and opposed any alignment with Nawaz League. He publicly expressed support to Imran Khan.

Meanwhile, Pervaiz Elahi was nominated as the PTI-PMLQ joint candidate.