GUJRAT, Feb 19: Pakistan Muslim League-Q head Chaudhry Shujaat Husain’s crushing defeat in his home town Gujrat is being seen as a major upset as political pundits try to figure out where things went wrong for the party’s “best bet”.
Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar of the Pakistan People’s Party has emerged as a dark horse, leaving many political minds racking their brains. According to the unofficial results of NA-105 (Gujrat), Mukhtar bagged 79,920 votes against Chaudhry Shujaat’s 66,464.
Overall, out of the four national assembly seats in the district, the PPP has sailed through in two –- NA-105 (Ahmad Mukhtar) and NA-106 (Qamar Zaman Kaira) and one each has been bagged by PML-Q’s Chaudhry Wajahat Husain (NA-104) and PML-N’s Malik Jamil Awan (NA-107). The former ruling party, however, chipped in with five of the eight Punjab Assembly seats. The PML-N clinched two and the PPP one.
It was the NA-105 where a clash of titans was expected and on which the national and international observers had set their sights considering the constituency a safe bet for Chaudhry Shujaat due to their stronghold in Gujrat. Shujaat’s younger brother, Chaudhry Shafaat Husain has twice been elected district nazim, that is, in 2001 and 2005 local elections.
The Chaudhrys were quite confident of winning their ‘ancestral seat’ also because of their strong belief that they had carried out unprecedented uplift during the last eight years besides giving jobs to the people of Gujrat in various government departments. They also obliged a number of prominent figures, especially in the political circle, of the rural and urban areas and launched their campaign on a performance basis.
But the people of the urban areas of NA-105 Gujrat, Kunjah and Mungowal cities revolted against the policies of Q league and even in the rural areas where the Chaudhrys were considered strong. In PP-110 (Kunjah), PPP candidate Nasir Samman got 36,000 votes against Chaudhry Moonis Elahi which itself is being considered as an achievement. With this has come the introduction of the Sammans, a strong Jutt family which has paved the way for Ahmad Mukhtar and dealt a blow to Chaudhry Shujaat’s vote bank.
If we look at the results of Gujrat city’s 15 union councils, Ahmad Mukhtar won with a thumping majority on the national assembly seat. He, however, lost the provincial assembly seat from PP-111 (Gujrat city) to PML-N’s Haji Nasir Mahmood. Also in the run was former education minister Mian Imran Masood, a PML-Q candidate, who has won here in the last four consecutive elections. He could get around 12,000 votes this time round and stood third on the table. PML-N’s Haji Nasir contested the general election for the first time and obtained 27,413 votes. Ahmed Mukhtar scored 16,107.
Ahmad Mukhtar owes his success a great deal to Mian Nawaz Sharif who did not field his candidate on NA-105 and supported the PPP man against Chaudhry Shujaat. “Cast your NA vote in favour of arrow and PA vote for lion” became a slogan that clicked.
Political analysts observe that the people overlooked the local performance of the Chaudhrys and preferred to vote on the basis of national issues, indicating the level of resentment against the PML-Q and President Pervez Musharraf’s policies.
MANDI BAHAUDDIN: Rumblings of revolt were heard also in Mandi Bahauddin district where the PPP won both national assembly seats and four of the five provincial assembly constituencies. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was the only winner in one of the constituencies.
A close triangular fight was witnessed on NA-108 where PPP’s Tariq Tarrar Raika defeated PML-N’s Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmad and PML-Q’s Zafarullah Tarrar, a former legislator like Chaudhry Ejaz. It was a tough contest between Tarrar and Ejaz who could not get the party ticket and the symbol of lion within the scheduled period as the PML-N had earlier nominated Mumtaz Tarrar as its candidate but later due to the opposition by the party’s local chapter, the central leadership asked Mumtaz to withdraw in favour of Ejaz, and he did so.
The lion’s symbol was, however, awarded to Mumtaz and Ejaz had to be content with the symbol of huqqa as an independent candidate with the backing of the PML-N. He could not get the things in his favour, the analysts say.
In NA-109, Nazar Muhammad Gondal of the PPP has won the seat by obtaining 74,163 votes and PML-Q’s Nasir Iqbal Bosal is the runner-up by taking 67,486 votes. Gondal was elected an MNA on a PPP ticket in 1993 and then became the district nazim in 2001. The very next year, his brother Maj Zulfiqar Gondal (retired) was elected an MNA on a PPP ticket and this time again, Nazar Gondal has emerged successful despite the official machinery’s support for his opponent Nasir Bosal.
Former chief minister Pervaiz Elahi contested the election from PP-118 (Qadirabad/ Malikwal), falling in NA-109, and defeated PPP’s Fazal Akram Ranjha by a margin of around 18,000 votes. Ranjha complained about massive rigging by the PML-Q, but his cries vanished in the air.
The people of Mandi Bahauddin revived the history of the 1993 election when the PPP had won both NA seats and three of the four Punjab Assembly seats.
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