PML-Q faces defections in Seraiki belt

By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) is facing a threat of defections after some of its newly-elected MPs from the southern Punjab on Tuesday contacted Yousuf Raza Gillani to assure him of their full support, as Asif Ali Zardari prepared to announce his name as the new prime minister of Pakistan.

If Yousuf Raza Gillani gets the nomination, he would be the first Seraiki- speaking prime minister from a region where the PPP had been winning the maximum number of seats after Sindh.

In the Feb 18 general elections, the PPP won 23 seats from the Seraiki belt. Another Seraiki-speaking politician, Balakh Sher Mazari, served as the caretaker prime minister for a brief period in 1993.

Sources said, at least, 12 PML-Q MNAs might vote for Yousuf Raza Gillani after examining their legal position as they all have personal and spiritual relationship with him, spanning over several years.

Gillani defeated Nawaz Sharif from Multan in 1988. Nawaz Sharif was the then the caretaker chief minister of the Punjab. Top-level sources within the PML-Q told The News that the news about the likely nomination of Yousuf Raza Gillani as the prime minister had come as a pleasant surprise for many MPs from the southern Punjab, as the top politician from the Seraiki region enjoyed a lot of personal friendships with many political families of the region.

Sources said disgruntled elements in the PML-Q ranks, who were trying to form their own forward bloc in the National Assembly, might come forward to cast their vote in his favour. Sources said even when the name of Yousuf Raza Gillani was being discussed for the National Assembly Speaker, many PML-Q MPs had personally met Gillani to assure him of their support. Among them were the top leaders of the PML-Q.

These MNAs were mulling different legal ways and means to vote for Gillani to avoid becoming a target of the defection clause. One MNA from the Seraiki region, who met Gillani on Tuesday, confirmed that he was ready to vote for him but he did not know whether the defection clause would apply to him.

Earlier, when Gillani was languishing in the Adiala Jail, many top and sitting leaders of the PML-Q used to visit him there. Gillani was even lured to strike a deal with the Musharraf camp but he refused.

Yousaf Raza Gillani – a profile Daily Times

By Amjad Warraich

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) nominee for prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, is a seasoned politician with strong background of influential political family and vast experience of local to national level politics. Presently the vice chairman of the PPP, he served as the National Assembly speaker during Benazir Bhutto’s second government from 1993 to 1996 and as a federal minister in Muhammad Khan Junejo’s government from 1985 to 1988.

Like his elders, he has wonderful electoral track record. He made first entry to electoral politics in 1983 by defeating the then federal minister Syed Fakhar Imam in the elections for Multan district council chairman. He won a National Assembly seat in 1988 by defeating Mian Nawaz Sharif, the then PML Punjab president and caretaker chief minister of the province. His uncle and a veteren parliamentarian Makhdum Hamid Raza Gillani became his victim in 1990 elections. His 2008 opponent Sikandar Hayat Bosan was also a former federal minister. The only defeat Gillani received during his 25-year electoral politics was in 1997 when Bosan outclassed him.

Arrested in February 2001 by General Pervez Musharraf government under charges of misuse of authority, he spent almost six years in prison, where he wrote a book and also improved his profile to qualify for premiership, in the absence of any Bhutto or Zardari from the National Assembly.

He did not fight 2002 elections because of being in jail and got his nephew Syed Asad Murtaza Gillani elected to the National Assembly. Asad later joined the PPP-Patriots paving the way for allegations of secret deal against his jailed uncle. An old Formanite, Gillani hails from Multan, the most important city in southern Punjab. He belongs to an influential political family. His is the fourth generation in electoral politics.

Earlier, his great grandfather Syed Sadruddin Shah’s brother Syed Rajan Bux Shah was the first Gillani to be elected to Indian Legislative Council in 1921. He remained its member till his death in 1936. Gillanis joined the All India Muslim League in 1940s. Rajan’s nephew Syed Mohammad Raza Shah defeated Unionist party candidate and PPP’s another contender for premiership Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s grandfather Makhdum Murid Hussain Qureshi in 1946 elections. Raza Shah was the only non-official president of the Multan District Board before Partition, defeating British Depty Commissioner EP Moon in the elections. He was brother of Yousaf Raza’s grandfather Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah.

Raza’s son Hamid Raza Gillani won National Assembly seats in 1962, 1965, 1977 and 1985. He served as parliamentary secretary in 1960s and as a federal miniuster in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 1977 cabinet. He was elected to Senate of Pakistan in 1991. Mustafa Shah’s son and Yousaf’s father Makhdum Alamdar Gillani was elected to Punjab Assembly in 1951 alongwith his brother Syed Walayat Hussain Shah. Alamdar Gillani was elevated to provincial health minister in 1953. He joined newly born Republican Party in 1956 and was disqualified by Ayub government from electoral politics. His brother and Yousaf’s uncle Rehmat Shah filled the vaccum by joining Ayub’s Conventional Muslim League and winning a provincial seat along with Hamid Raza who kept on leading the family on the electoral scene till the time Yousaf ousted him in 1990. Another cousin of Yousaf Raza Gillani, Syed Tanvirul Hasan Gillani, also won a national seat in 1990 but from the platform of Islami Jamhuri Ittehad (IJI).

Yousaf is also closely knit in the network of feudal-cum-Makhdum politicians of Pakistan. Himself being descendent of Moosa Pak Shaheed, a great saint of Multan, Yousaf’s mother was a sister of Makhdum Hasan Mahmood of Jamaldinwali, Rahimyar Khan. Makhdum Hasan’s other sister was married to Pir of Pagaro. Some shrewed observers believe that Pir Pagara’s statement in favour of Makhdum Amin Faheem’s premiership was a successful attempt to discredit him and pave the way for his nephew’s elevation. Yousaf’s first maternal cousin Makhdum Ahmad Mahmood is provincial president of Pir Pagara’s Functional League. Ahmad Mahmood’s sister is married to General Musharraf’s former loyalist Jehangir Tareen.

The PPP leadership is sure that the combined force of three shrines including Gillanis of Multan, Makhdums of Jamaldinwali and Pirs of Pagaro is sufficient to counter Naulakhi (nine hundred thousand followers) seat of Makhdums of Hala Sharif.


Post edited by: admin, at: 2008/03/23 02:12

The Post, Pakistan

Since the introduction I found Gillani very sober and tightlipped. He listened more than he talked. Young, handsome, polite with plain talk, Gillani was a towering figure among the students. Though Gillani's schooling was in English medium educational institutes, he preferred Seraiki when with his classmates.
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bloomberg.com

Gillani's political base is limited, partly because he is from the Seraiki ethnic group, a politically marginalized minority in the southern part of Punjab province.
In choosing a Seraiki, Zardari may be trying to ease the traditional rivalry between the country's two largest ethnic groups -- Sindhis such as himself and Punjabis such as Sharif, Alqama said.

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The News, Pakistan

Coming from the Seraiki region of Punjab, Mr Gilani will bring the respect, vision and wisdom of the saints who based themselves in the region to spread their message of peace, love and co-existence.

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The HINDU, India

Mr. Gillani, a PPP leader from Multan in the Seraiki belt of southern Punjab, also commands a large following in parts of Sindh on account of his family’s custodianship of the shrine of the famous Sufi saint Musapak.

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NewindPress.com

The choice of Gillani from the Punjab is predicated on strengthening the PPP in the southern Seraiki speaking belt where the PML-Quaid has made inroads.

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BBCURDU.com

MAKHDOOMS VS MAKHDOOM

LAMABAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Prime Minister-elect Yousaf Raza Gillani on Monday demanded a probe by the United Nations into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

While addressing the National Assembly after he was elected as the new prime minister, Gillani said the National Assembly should pass a resolution demanding a U.N. probe into Bhutto's assassination.

Bhutto, also former leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was killed in a gun and bomb attack last December while attending a political rally.

Gillani, the PPP vice-chairman, secured 264 votes from the 342-seat parliament in Monday's elections. He was the speaker of the National Assembly during the second government of Bhutto from 1993to 1997.