CHAKWAL: The village of Tamman is situated some 30 kilometres from Talagang in the Chakwal district.

Being the native village of the influential Awans, Tamman used to be the centre of the area consisting of Talagang and the new tehsil of Lawa.

Since the British era, the Sardar of Tamman have been the key players in the area’s politics and Tamman emerged as the sole seat of power in the Talagang tehsil in 1965 when its chieftain, Sardar Mohammad Hayat Khan Tamman became the railway minister of West Pakistan.

Sardar Hayat also served as advisor on political and public affairs to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Talgang tehsil was part of what is now Attock district till 1985 when it was annexed to Chakwal tehsil when it was upgraded to a district. The politicians of Talagang have been from Tamman. MNAs from NA-65, Chakwal-II, have been from the village between 1985 and 2013. The runner-ups were also from this village.

In the non-party general elections of 1985, when Talagang tehsil was still part of Attock district, retired Air Marshal Malik Nur Khan was elected MNA in his electoral debut.

In the 1988 elections, Malik Nur Khan was defeated by Sardar Mansoor Hayat Tamman, the son of the late Sardar Mohammad Tamman, who started his political career under the banner of the Nawaz Sharif-led Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJI). Mr Khan quit politics after the defeat.

Mansoor Tamman was re-elected as MNA in 1990 when he was contesting against Sardar Ghulam Abbas, an influential of the Myer Minhas tribe from Kot Chaudhrian village.

In 1993, a relatively unknown Sardar Mumtaz Khan Tamman, another Awan from the Tamman village and a relative of Malik Nur Khan, was elected MNA on the PPP’s ticket in his first election. Mansoor Tamman defeated Sardar Mumtaz Tamman for the National Assembly seat in 1997.

In 2002, Sardar Mohammad Faiz Malik won by contesting independently against Sardar Mansoor Hayat Tamman, who was elected MNA three times on either PML-N or IJI ticket but contested the 2002 election for the PML-Q. Faiz Malik is the nephew of Sardar Mumtaz Tamman but due to family disputes, the uncle and nephew are not on speaking terms.

From 2002 to 2008 many uplift projects were carried out in this constituency for two reasons. Hafiz Ammar Yasir, a resident of Talagang who had close relations with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat and made the most of his ties with the then chief minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. And Sardar Ghulam Abbas who, as a powerful district nazim and a close aide of Pervez Elahi, played a vital role in the accomplishment of development projects.

. Chaudhry Pervez Elahi tried his luck in this constituency in the 2008 general elections but was defeated by Sardar Mumtaz Tamman.

From 1985 to 2013, nine elections including a by-election in 2010 were held in this constituency all of which were won by a Tamman politician.

This time, the Tamman politicians will be facing Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, the PTI and PML-Q’s joint candidate. Mr Elahi has emerged as the more promising candidate as Sardar Mumtaz Tamman has announced his support for him as well as he was surpassed for the PML-N ticket in favour of Sardar Faiz Tamman.

PTI district president Sardar Mansoor Hayat Tamman was hoping for the party ticket but an alliance was made with PML-Q and the party did not field its candidate. Mansoor Tamman decided to contest as an independent.

“The politics in Tamman is under threat due to the silliness and differences of three major politicians in the village,” said Rauf Ahmed Shah, a retired professor of political science.

Sardar Mansoor Hayat said Pervez Elahi is appealing to PTI voters and that he did not maintain contact with people during the last five years and did nothing for the area in his time as chief minister and deputy prime minister.

About Faiz Tamman, Mansoor Hayat said he has not been active in politics the last eight years and that his voter bank is that of his uncle.

The real contest seems to be between Pervez Elahi and Faiz Tamman.

Sardar Mumtaz Khan Tamman thinks Pervez Elahi can win easily and said he is supporting Mr Elahi because people should come out of “regionalism and think of the country”.

“People usually leave the constituency after losing elections but despite having lost twice from this constituency I have not abandoned it. Whenever I got a chance to do any uplift project in this constituency I tried my best to fulfil it”, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2018