LAHORE, May 12: In the May 11 elections, several surnames such as Khar, Jatoi, Gilani, Cheema, Kaira, Bharwana, Raja and Wattoo failed to impress voters who switched over to their rivals, mostly backed by the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

These political dynasties will have to wait till next elections to try their luck again to get into power corridors.

The Khars of Muzaffargarh have been dominating the local electoral politics since 1970, always managing to defeat their Gurmani and Qureshi rivals in elections. This time, they fared by far the worst, showing their poorest result in 40 years as no Khar will be present in any assembly. In the last election, Hina Rabbani Khar (PPP), Bilal Khar (PPP) and Jawad Khar (PML-Q) were elected to assemblies.

However, in the 2013 elections, Hina’s father Malik Noor Rabbani Khar (PPP), Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar (PML-F), Bilal Khar (PPP) and Farooq Khar (PML-N) have been voted out by their rivals.

The Jatois of Alipur – Qayyum Jatoi, Moazam Jatoi and Shahzad Jatoi – also lost elections to their PML-N rivals. In previous assemblies, the trio had been representing their respective constituencies.

In Multan, Gilanis had to suffer the worst defeat of their political career spanning over 50 years. The five Gilanis, four of them scions of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani –Abdul Qadir, Ali Musa, Haider and Qasim and his brother Ali Mujtaba, lost elections to their rivals. Of them, Haider and Qasim were fighting for the first time while Qadir, Musa and Mujtaba had managed to reach assemblies in bye-elections. Haider Gilani, candidate for PP-200, was kidnapped on May 9, just two days before the elections.

Chaudhry Anwar Ali Cheema of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q has been a veteran parliamentarian from Sargodha (NA-67) since 1985. His dream of taking oath in the National Assembly for seventh time was shattered by PML-N’s Dr Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti.

The defeat of Kairas of Lalamusa, Gujrat, is one of the most talked about upset in the May 11 elections. Their dominance in local politics set by the late Haji Asghar Kaira and later inherited by his political successor Qamar Zaman Kaira came to an end with the victory of Chaudhry Jaafar Iqbal Fatta Bhand of the PML-N in NA-106.

The powerful Bharwana family of Jhang made its presence felt in the last two assemblies through two women -- Ghulam Bibi Bharwana and Saima Akhtar Bharwana. Despite having PML-N’s tickets, both were defeated by their independent rivals by a sizeable margin.

Raja Afzal of Jhelum has been returning to the National Assembly since 1985. In 2002, after a degree bar on candidature, his sons Raja Asad and Raja Safdar contested the elections. In 2013, he along with his two MNA sons changed loyalty form the PML-N to the PPP because of local groupings. In the 2013 elections, he contested from the two constituencies retained by his sons -- NA-62 and NA-63 -- but lots to his PML-N rivals.

Manzoor Wattoo was picked by the PPP to manage win for the party in Punjab. He contested from two NA and one PA constituency of Okara while his son Khurram Wattoo and daughter Jahanara Wattoo were candidates for PA seats. All have lost to PML-N candidates.

No doubt, these families have been in politics for decades and after the 2013 upset, they will try to make a comeback in the next elections.

Only time will tell if they will capture their lost grounds.

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