• Nadeem Afzal Chan named information secretary as PPP looks to focus on Punjab
• Shujaat’s sons Salik, Shafay among new office-bearers of PML-Q

ISLAMABAD / GUJRAT: Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was re-elected as the PPP chairman in the intra-party elections held on Saturday at the party’s Central Secretariat in Islamabad.

The elections, conducted in line with the party’s constitution, selected office-bearers for a four-year term, according to an official statement issued by Fauzia Habib, the party’s central election convener.

Apart from Mr Bhutto-Zardari, Humayun Khan was elected secretary general, Nadeem Afzal Chan was named information secretary and Amna Piracha was appointed secretary finance.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s re-election came as no surprise, given his central role in the party and his political lineage as the son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and grandson of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

However, the appointment of Mr Chan as information secretary shows that the PPP wants to develop roots in the media and wants to focus on Punjab during the coming years.

The official statement gave the impression that all office-bearers were elected unopposed as the names of opponents and the number of votes bagged by each winner and opponent were not mentioned.

Attempts to contact senior PPP leader and former Senate chairman Nayyar Hussain Bukhari for comment went unanswered.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi congratulated the newly elected PPP office-bearers and hoped that the leadership would work towards strengthening democratic values and meeting public expectations.

PML-Q intra-party polls

Meanwhile, former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was elected as president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) in the intra-party elections held at the Muslim League House in Islamabad on Saturday.

Mr Shujaat’s son Chaudhry Salik Hussain, also a federal minister, is elected as the party’s central senior vice president, whereas his elder son Chaudhry Shafay Hussain — Punjab’s minister for Auqaf — has been elected as general secretary for PML-Q’s Punjab chapter.

According to a press release issued by the party, Tariq Hassan from Karachi has been elected as PML-Q’s secretary general, whereas Malik Sameen Khan was elected as Punjab president.

The names of the newly elected officials were announced by Central Election Commissioner Hafiz Aqeel and Provincial Election Commissioner Dr Abdul Raheem.

Members of the central and provincial general councils endorsed the new office-bearers by a show of hands.

The council also approved the appointment of Dr Muhammad Amjad as chief organiser and Mustafa Malik as the central information secretary.

The joint session of the party’s central and Punjab general councils was chaired by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

The party’s outgoing secretary general, Tariq Basheer Cheema, who is an MNA from Bahawalpur, was not present during the intra-party elections.

Party sources said that only two out of the party’s total five MNAs attended the event.

PML-Q’s MNA Hussain Elahi and his brother MPA Musa Elahi — nephews of the party chief — were also not among the participants.

In the last general elections, the PML-Q saw electoral success in Gujrat, securing eight Punjab Assembly and two out of four National Assembly seats.

An independent MNA, Chaudhry Ilyas from Sara-i-Alamgir (Gujrat), backed by PTI, later joined the party.

With the addition of Mr Cheema from Bahawalpur and one reserved seat for women awarded to Farah Khan, president of the party’s women’s wing, the PML-Q’s current strength in the National Assembly stands at five members.

The PPP and PML-Q intra-party elections came as Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) remains in hot water over its own intra-party polls.

The PTI previously conducted elections in which most candidates were elected unopposed, but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) refused to validate the results.

A second round of elections met the same fate, leading to the party’s disqualification from contesting the Feb 8, 2024, general elections under its symbol of bat.

As a result, all PTI-affiliated candidates participated in the elections as independents.

Following the polls, they attempted to join the Sunni Ittehad Council in a bid to claim reserved seats, but the ECP rejected their affiliation, ruling that SIC leader Hamid Raza had contested as an independent and the party held no seats in the National Assembly.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2025