CHINIOT: PML-N’s Maulana Ilyas Chinioti and Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh have been elected as MPA and MNA for the fourth and third consecutive terms from urban and semi-urban areas of PP-95 and NA-94

Mr Chinioti was first elected MPA in 2008 after his father Maulana Manzoor Chinioti died in 2005, and he inherited his political seat. Maulana Manzoor was prominent for his staunch religious causes, and he was elected MPA in 1985 and 1988 and later remained municipal committee chairman.

Soon after his election as MPA in 2008 as an independent candidate, Mr Chinioti joined the PML-N after the Shehbaz Sharif government agreed to upgrade Chiniot to a district and in 2009, the demand was realised. He was elected MPA as a PML-N candidate in 2013, 2018, and now 2024.

Mr Sheikh, an industrialist from Chiniot, was first elected MNA on a PML-N ticket in 2013. He also continued his victory in 2018 and 2024.

He was made chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance in 2013 and 2022, while he was also made special assistant to prime minister Shehbaz Sharif in the coalition government in 2022.

Analysts say that personalities of these candidates are the main reasons for their victory. Other than sectarian reasons, Mr Chinioti gets elected as he belongs to the middle class and is available to any citizen who may pick him on his motorcycle to any police or administration officer.

The Chiniot Sheikh clan bradery has been continuously paying back to its fellow citizens of Chiniot through development projects, such as hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, and other welfare-oriented projects besides financial assistance to the poor and destitute. As Mr Sheikh leads all these projects, he is popular among voters. Moreover, his development schemes, provision of gas, electrification to rural areas also added to his success despite the surge of PTI votes all over Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2024