By Raza Ruman
(Pak Destiny) The Shahbaz Sharif and company’s fear that Chaudhry Parvez Elahi will make PML-N bite the dust in the election of Speaker Punjab Assembly prove true.
Not only an unprecedented victory with 201 votes for the slot of speaker from PTI and PML-Q lawmakers but he managed to carve out a forward bloc with at least 11 members who voted for him in the election of the speaker.
Mr Elahi has set a perfect tone of his entering the Punjab Assembly sending a clear message to the PML-N of the Sharifs that their time is over.
Parvez Elahi is treating the PML-N with its own medicine. Shahbaz Sharif had carved out a forward bloc of over 40 PML-Q members after coming to power in in 2008. Exactly after about a decade Mr Sharif is licking his own wounds. It is said what goes around comes around. For the Sharifs it is a time for reversal of fortunes.
The political quarters believe that it Parvez Elahi will prove to be more lethal than the PTI for the PML-N in Punjab politics. In coming days it is believed that the PML-N forward bloc will swell to 20 plus MPAs
The political quarters believe that it Parvez Elahi will prove to be more lethal than the PTI for the PML-N in Punjab politics. In coming days it is believed that the PML-N forward bloc will swell to 20 plus MPAs saying goodbye to Shahbaz and his son Hamza who happens to the opposition leader and direly needs his party’s support to put up a good opposition show in the assembly. It is also believed that after Mr Elahi’s assuming the charge of speaker has made PML-N look so weak and frail and PTI feel strong. “With a combination of Mr Elahi, Governor Sarwar and PTI chief minister, they will deliver in Punjab and pack up the PML-N once for all.”
Parvez Elahi begun his political career after electing as the chairman of district council of Gujrat in 1983. He served as provincial minister for local government for a period of eight years – 1985-93. He was elected as a member of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab for the first time in Pakistani general election 1985. He was re-elected as a member of Punjab Assembly in 1988, 1990 and 1993.
Nawaz Sharif who ditched the Chaudhry brothers on many occasions had promised Mr Elahi that if PML-N won elections in 1997, he would be made chief minister of Punjab, however, when the PML-N came to power Nawaz Sharif appointed his brother Shahbaz Sharif as Punjab CM.
Mr Elahi became Punjab chief minister in 2002 and during his five-year tenure he carried out unprecedented development and invested hugely in health and education sectors. In the PPP coalition government he became deputy prime minister before he returned to parliament in 2018 polls in two National and one Punjab assemblies seats.
In coming five years political pundits believe that PML-Q under Chaudhrys will further consolidate its position in Punjab and emerge more strong in next polls. — Pak Destiny
