Born and brought up in northeastern Punjab’s Gujranwala district, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich is among Pakistan Peoples Party’s senior members and is regarded as a veteran politician and a party stalwart.

A lawyer by profession, Warraich served as the Gujranwala district's bar association's general secretary in 1982-1983 and was a member of the local district council from 1983-1991. He has also served as the director of Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank Limited and was a federal minister in former premier Benazir Bhutto’s second government.

He was twice elected as an MNA in 2002 and 2008 from NA-98, his home constituency in Gujranwala, and was elected as an MPA for the Punjab Assembly in 1993, also from a seat in the same region. After his win in 2008, Warraich served as state minister for communication.

He served as PPP’s president of Gujranwala division and was appointed to the influential position of president of the party’s central Punjab chapter in 2010. His appointment as the party’s head in central Punjab was a source of disappointment for a group of PPP workers who said Warraich was not the stuff to deliver in the province, a traditional stronghold of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz.

His tenure as PPP’s central Punjab chief saw instances of violation of party disciple by office-bearers and workers which also became public knowledge. Warraich also made political news for failing to consult his deputy Samiullah Khan over the short-listing of candidates for the slot of party’s provincial information secretary. The PPP leadership later replaced Warraich with Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo for being inaccessible and for failing to mobilise party workers in the province.

Despite the trouble surrounding his term as the party’s president for central Punjab and his subsequent removal from the assignment, Warraich managed to retain his PPP ticket for the 2013 general election and is once again running from NA-98 (Gujranwala-IV).

— Research and text by Saher Baloch