ISLAMABAD, Aug 12: Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who for nearly two decades remained an automatic choice for people of the garrison city of Rawalpindi, is launching on Monday a last-ditch initiative to get back his National Assembly seat which he regularly won from the 1985 to 2002 general elections, but lost in 2008.

Mr Ahmad has announced that he will unveil his future strategy at a rally his party Awami Muslim League is organising at the historic Liaquat Bagh, as a protest demonstration against rampant corruption, mis-governance and loadshedding.

Although during regular TV appearances and media interactions he has refused to divulge in so many words his next political move, his invitation to Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) to be chief guest on the occasion dropped clear hints whose support he is looking for to re-grab the attention of people.

Official spokesperson for the PTI, Shafqat Mehmood, confirmed participation of Mr Khan in the rally. However, he was quick to add: “We have not formed any political alliance with Sheikh Rashid.”

Talking to Dawn, another PTI office-bearer said “at the maximum, the PTI would not field a candidate against Sheikh Rashid in next general elections, nothing more than that”.

“Of late, Mr Khan has developed a liking for Sheikh sahib. Thus, he couldn’t refuse his invitation for appearance in the rally,” he added.

To make the Monday rally a success, Mr Ahmad has not only invited the PTI chief, but also is using the same mode of canvassing which the PTI utilised for its successful rallies. For the past few days, residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been receiving on their cell phones an automated call from Sheikh Rashid who, after introducing himself, asks them to join him in the rally.

Since losing the 2008 elections, which he fought from the platform of the PML-Q, Mr Ahmad had knocked at every possible door to get back into mainstream politics. Soon after losing elections, he split up with the PML-Q and formed his AML. He also met President Asif Ali Zardari in January 2009 but refused to concede that his one-time dining with the president had anything to do with his political ambitions. But it is a fact that the PPP didn’t field its candidate in February 2010 by-elections for NA-55, which Sheikh Rashid lost to Shakil Awan of the PML-N.

Although he twice lost by-elections from his home constituency to PML-N candidates over the past four years, he kept himself politically alive through his regular TV appearances.

Having remained in the thick of politics for more than two decades, and given his crude way of commentating on politics, Sheikh Rashid has been the most sought-after TV guest for the rating-hungry talk-show hosts.

Moreover, Mr Ahmad’s readiness to appear on TV programmes has earned him the distinction of being the most convenient guest for anchorpersons.

“He is one of those politicians who are just a single telephone call away and he always comes on time. At times, Sheikh Rashid has filled in the place when a scheduled guest couldn’t make it in the end,” the producer of a private TV talk show said. Secondly, for right or wrong reasons, people like his traditional way of explaining things, the producer said.

Eying the general elections due within a year, Mr Ahmad for the past six months or so could be virtually seen running from the pillar to the post to win support of an established political party.

Besides rubbing shoulders with leaders of the Difa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC), a conglomerate of right-wing parties and groups that are against Nato supplies passing through the country, Sheikh Rashid also approached his former party, the PML-N. He has been regularly appearing at DPC rallies against the reopening of Nato supply routes.

According to PML-N insiders, the party’s leadership was willing to take him back, but stopped from doing so on the resistance put up by local party lawmakers. They said Hanif Abbasi and Shakil Awan, the two PML-N members of the National Assembly from Rawalpindi city, threatened to resign along with their supporters in case Sheikh Rashid was accepted back in the party.

Political observers say that with the news that Imran Khan will be the chief guest on the occasion, Sheikh Rashid may put up a reasonable show on Monday night, but lacks chances of returning to the National Assembly.

“People have seen enough of Sheikh Rashid for the past well over two decades when he not only won elections after elections but also remained federal minister during the PML-N governments in the 1990s and afterwards with Gen Pervez Musharraf,” commented a voter from his constituency, NA-55.

“I think, Sheikh sahib should take rest now and let somebody else do the politics,” he said.