RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) leader and former Potohar town nazim Hamid Nawaz Raja has reportedly made up his mind to join Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). 

Hamid is a member of Rawalpindi’s leading political family of Dhamial. He has a strong vote bank in the district, especially in NA-52 which returned the interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, to the National Assembly.  

Hamid Nawaz Raja is the brother-in-law of PML-Q’s central leader Raja Basharat. A family member claims though Raja Basharat will covertly support Hamid Nawaz in the local government elections, his (Raja Basharat) association with the PML-Q will continue ‘in the foreseeable future’.

PTI has claimed that Hamid Nawaz Raja met Imran Khan in Islamabad a month ago.

“It’s a matter of days before people will hear about his joining the PTI. Hamid Nawaz Raja has promised that he would join our camp soon,” PTI Central Secretary Public Relations Zahid Kazmi told Dawn.

He said the party’s doors remained open for the ‘neat and clean’ politicians.

Ex-Potohar town nazim has made up his mind to shift loyalties

“PTI under the leadership of Imran Khan wanted to bring change in the country, and for ‘Naya Pakistan’, we always welcome those politicians who have enjoyed good reputation in the past,” he said.

When contacted, Hamid Nawaz Raja, however, did not confirm but hinted at joining Imran Khan’s party. 

“Well, there is a possibility that I may switch my loyalties to the PTI. I will, however, decide my future course after consulting friends and sympathisers,” he told Dawn.

He also confirmed that he had held meetings with PTI leaders including the chairman, Imran Khan.

To a question about Raja Basharat, he said: “No, Raja sahib will not change the party and will remain in the PML-Q”.   

Former Punjab law minister Raja Basharat and former federal minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had remained in Gen Pervez Musharraf’s cabinet and are considered close to the former military ruler.

When Musharraf introduced the local government system in the country in 2001, the Raja Basharat and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed wanted their man to be the town nazim of Rawalpindi city.

To end the rift between the two politicians and close allies of Musharraf, former PML-Q-led Punjab government bifurcated the city’s tehsil municipal administration (TMA) into Rawal and Potohar towns.

After this, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s nephew Sheikh Rashid Hafeez was elected Rawal Town nazim while Raja Basharat’s brother-in-law Hamid Nawaz Raja became the Potohar Town nazim. It may be mentioned here that Raja Basharat was elected Rawalpindi District Council chairman in 1979 local government elections after defeating Raja Shahid Zafar, former federal minister in Benazir Bhutto’s first cabinet in 1989.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2015

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