GUJRAT: The PML-N has declared Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gull as its candidate for NA-68 (Jalalpur Jattan-Tanda) and he may face former federal minister Chaudhry Wajahat Husain of the PML-Q.

The Nawabzada family and Chaudhrys of the PML-Q have been political rivals in Gujrat for the last six decades.

The nomination of Ghazanfar Gull is being considered a breakthrough in the local political scene as the family had earlier been divided over fielding Mr Gull as a candidate. Mr Gull and other members of the family called on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore on Sunday and he was declared their candidate.

The announcement of nominating Mr Gull as the PML-N candidate was made by the party president in the presence of MNA Nawabzada Mazhar Ali Khan, former Gujrat district council chairman ex-MPA Nawabzada Muzaffar Ali Khan, MPA Nawabzada Mehdi as well as PML-N MNA from Gujrat Abid Raza Kotla. MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif was also present.

Mr Gull, a former PPP MNA who had quit the party around one year ago for being marginalised after three-decade long association, had started his political career after being nominated as district general secretary of the PPP Gujrat in 1987 by the late Benazir Bhutto and he was first elected an MPA in 1988 polls.

He then contested the NA-80 (now NA-68) seat in 1990 but lost at the hands of IJI’s Chaudhry Tajamal Hussain. Mr Gull defeated Chaudhry Shujaat Husain in 1993 as a PPP nominee but after that he consistently lost three elections -- in 1997 at the hands of Chaudhry Mubashar Husain and in 2002 and 2008 by Chaudhry Wajahat Husain.

In 2013, the PPP did not award him a ticket under a seat adjustment formula with the PML-Q in Punjab and his family insisted him to join the PML-N but he did not agree. His elder brothers and nephews joined the PML-N and Mazhar Ali defeated PML-Q’s Wajahat Husain on an NA seat and his nephew Nawabzada Haider Mehdi became an MPA on PP-108 (now PP-28 Karianwala-Tanda).

PML-N MPAs Haider Mehdi and Moin Nawaz Warraich who had won both the PA seats (PP-108 and -109) under NA-68 in 2013, will be retained as the party nominees in the 2018 election for PP-28 and -29.

On the other hand, Chaudhry Wajahat and his son Husain Elahi have accelerated their electioneering in the last few months by holding meetings at the union council and village level.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2018