FOR a meeting written in fate, it was still a bit of a coincidence that Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi were home when Shah Mehmood Qureshi arrived at their doorstep on Wednesday.

The two Chaudhry cousins are more at home at Allama Tahirul Qadri’s residence in Model Town these days, excitedly sizing up the consignment and measuring the merchandise as do seasoned goods forwarding agents. Dr Qadri is the latest stop their search for numbers has taken them to, and they have already signed up for the impending revolution.

If the Pakistan Awami Tehreek was what they had been waiting for, recognition from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) that Qureshi’s visit has brought them would indicate that they are on to something big here.

The two Chaudhry cousins are more at home at Allama Tahirul Qadri’s residence in Model Town these days.

The two gentlemen from Gujrat have leadership which they have been itching to provide to whoever has the vision, and crucially, also the numbers. Their first client in the post-Musharraf era was the PPP. So eager was the PPP leadership to flaunt the Chaudhrys as their allies that it risked a rift in its own ranks, in Gujrat and throughout Punjab.

That was an alliance which was doomed from the outset, and while Chaudhry Shujaat hasn’t been as forthcoming in regretting his other past associations, he has been categorical in admitting that his election alliance with the PPP was a huge mistake.

Again, he has not yet subjected the coming together of the PPP and the PML-Q in the government before the last elections to such critical evaluation, but given the results in the 2013 polls, it can be said the Q-League failed to extract from that ruling coalition the benefits it was aspiring to.

The 2013 poll ended a mystery and cut short a fairy­tale — of a party that was able to retain its significance in national politics despite everyone saying that it had lost its purpose.

After the departure of Gen Pervez Musharraf, the inventor of the PML-Q, from the scene, the thinking generally was that the party would disintegrate fast. When it didn’t, the feat was credited to the crafty leadership of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, as also to the need of a shaky PPP desperate for just enough support in parliament. Unfortunately for the two Gujrat gentlemen who had been an integral part of Punjab politics since the late 1970s, their magic failed to work during the 2013 elections.

Faced as the Chaudhrys were with the task of reinventing themselves, for a little while they created the impression that they were about to place their trust in a new face from the family, Moonis Elahi. Ever so briefly it was thought that the young Moonis was from then onwards going to be allowed to lead the Chaudhrys’ charge with the blessings and under the supervision of Pervaiz Elahi and Shujaat Husain.

Short of that, Moonis was at least being tipped for some important role in the Chaudhrys’ image that badly needed reorganisation and an urgent sprinkling of the new to freshen it up. But that option was soon put on hold in favour of a continuation of some old-style politics.

Some may call the politics that followed from the PML-Q platform an attempt at saving an old brand that has been so central to the life of the system that has evolved over the years. As the PML-Q duo now makes their pledges to change the system, they are obviously not willing to rid themselves of the status of being the ultimate adhesive that guaranteed the longevity of the system — here obviously being two systems or establishments in the Chaudhrys’ book, one that needs to be razed and the other that has to be nurtured and perpetuated.

The choices here are clear but the course over time has certainly gotten tougher. Ever since it was wiped out in Punjab, its base, in the last elections, the PML-Q under the Chaudhrys has been soliciting the support of the PTI. The PTI was the only party with the capacity to challenge the PML-N, and like an outfit confident of its value and unwilling to unduly accommodate any free riders, it has taken its time in reciprocating the positive vibes from the PML-Q.

However, in aid of allegations about both the PTI and PML-Q being natural allies, Imran Khan has been careful not to mention the Chaudhrys’ contributions to the system he wants to dismantle in a hurry. The call on Wednesday by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, PTI’s vice president, signified that Imran is now ready to exploit the potential of this ally-in-store, in return for promising the two PML-Q leaders some much awaited real action in the middle.

Given that the PTI had so far resisted indulging the PML-Q could mean that Imran Khan is considering serious, direct action against the government of Mian Nawaz Sharif. He may well be thinking about carrying out his threat to resign from the National Assembly thus destabilising the government. There is a flurry of activity involving other players — the PPP, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, et al — that confirms that no one is taking the PTI’s warnings of a march on Islamabad and other actions lightly.

This points to a real opportunity for the Chaudhrys. They do not have the large disciples that Dr Tahirul Qadri has at his disposal or the parliamentary presence of Imran Khan’s PTI. They must pose as the guides and must believe that the map that they have been flaunting to woo parties much bigger in size will still take them to the old, familiar destination.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2014