Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi entered Gujrat politics in the 1960s by drawing a line between the Gujjar and Jatt clans that were earlier united under the Nawabzada banner. In the 1970 general elections he defeated Nawabzada Asghar Ali in one of Gujrat’s National Assembly constituencies.
In 1977, as he himself was in jail, two young men ran Chaudhry Zahoor’s poll campaign: his son Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and nephew Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. Shujaat was a candidate for a Punjab Assembly seat in that election which his banner, the Pakistan National Alliance, boycotted after allegations of massive rigging in the voting for the national polls three days earlier.
Zahoor Elahi was killed in 1981. His son and nephew found an ally in General Ziaul Haq. Shujaat was inducted into Zia’s Majlis-i-Shoora and in 1983 the Chaudhrys wrested the Gujrat district council from the Nawabzadas’ control by a solitary vote.
For the 1985 ‘non-party’ elections, the arch-rivals struck a deal which allowed both the Chaudhrys and the Nawabzadas to reach parliament from two separate Gujrat constituencies. Shujaat went on to become a minister in the cabinet of Mohammad Khan Junejo while Pervez found place in the cabinet of then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif.
The family retained the national and provincial seats for the next two elections, bringing in more of their kin in a growing rivalry with the Pakistan Peoples Party. In 1993, Shujaat lost both seats he contested to Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul and Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar. But in 1997, the PPP conceded the two seats to Shujaat and a nephew of his, Chaudhry Mubashar Hussain. After Pervez and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain won provincial assembly seats Pervez was elected Punjab Assembly speaker.
The Chaudhrys crossed over to Gen Pervez Musharraf after the 1999 coup. They maintain that they only ‘defected’ from the Sharifs, who chose exile over imprisonment. Whatever the truth, both Shujaat and Pervez were in the forefront of the initiative to politically justify Gen Musharraf’s rule, and were chief contributors from Punjab to the creation of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid.
The ‘king’s party’ came to power after the 2002 general election and landed the Chaudhrys the coveted office of the chief minister of Punjab.Shujaat had his own 58 days of glory when he served as a stop-gap prime minister in the interim between the sacking of Mir Zafarullah Jamali and the appointment of Shaukat Aziz.
The Chaudhrys suffered as Musharraf’s men in 2008. Shujaat lost his Gujrat seat and one in Sambrial (Sialkot). However, his younger brother Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain defeated Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul of the PPP in NA-104. Pervez was elected to the National Assembly from Attock and to the provincial assembly from Mandi Bahauddin, while he lost in Chakwal and Bahawalpur. His son, Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, won the ‘family’ provincial assembly seat.
The following year, Shujaat was elected to the Senate and in 2012 Pervez was appointed deputy prime minister in return for the PML-Q’s support for the PPP coalition.
There have been problems. One branch of the family, led by Chaudhry Tajammul Hussain, parted ways some years ago, finding a home first in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and then in the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. Chaudhry Moonis Elahi has been faced with criminal cases originating in his father’s days as the Punjab chief minister. There has been a split in the PML-Q and the Chaudhrys’ alliance with the PPP has frequently come under pressure.
Pervez’s refusal to abdicate in favour of the PPP’s Ahmed Mukhtar on a Gujrat seat even when the formula between the two parties favoured Mukhtar is evidence of a political reality that the Chaudhrys are fully aware of: they are fighting for their political survival and would rather do that on home turf.