In a way, it is sad. The PML(Q) has been a ruling party only 20 years ago, but now it has been reduced to a pressure group, and by the 2018 elections, was left to negotiate the Punjab Speakership for its Punjab President Ch Pervez Elahi, whose bid to become Chief Minister has been defeated. Now it seems, the party’s split, which has seen Ch Pervez and his son Moonis on one side, that of the PTI, and cousin and party chief Ch Shujaat and his son Salik on the other, that of the PDM coalition, and in particular PPP chief Asif Zardari.
The consequences of the collapse of the PML(Q) are obvious for national politics, but the immediate effects on Punjab politics are to be seen. Ch Pervez has become the last redoubt of the PTI’s Punjab power fortress, and with Punjab CM Hamza Shehbaz obtaining a majority after the by-elections to the seats where PTI members were disqualified for voting for him, his position becomes weak to the point of vanishing. Then there is the politics of Gujrat district, where the Chaudhrys have got strong roots, as well as strong enmities. If the Chaudhrys contest the coming elections divided among themselves, then it is possible that the dominance of the Chaudhrys since 1985, after emerging in 1962, will be ended.
In a way, the PML(Q) story is a cautionary tale about the rise and fall of Pakistani politics. The cousins seem disunited in ways that the brothers do not. (Ch Shujaat and Ch Pervez are actually cousins, but are married to the other’s sister, and are as close as any brothers). Other parties can learn, particularly the PML(N). If Ch Parvez and Ch Shujaat maintain mutual respect, so do Mian Nawz Sharif and Mian Shehbaz. But just as the Chaudhrys’ children do not see eye to eye, nor do the Sharifs. But that is the price to be paid for dynasticism.
