Sardar Usman Khan Buzdar, a member of Punjab Assembly from PP-286 Dera Ghazi Khan, will be the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate for the Punjab chief minister’s slot. The announcement was made by Prime Minister-elect Imran Khan late on Friday night. Hailing from Taunsa Sharif, PTI’s Usman Buzdar got elected to the Punjab Assembly for the first in the July 25 polls. He was among the southern Punjab heavyweights who defected from PML-N to formed the Janobi Punjab Suba Mahaz (JPSM) just a few months before the July 25 elections. The alliance later merged into the PTI. Usman Buzdar comes from a family that remained associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) during the Musharaf years. He served as the tehsil nazim of Taunsa Sharif, working closely worked with then Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who is now the PA speaker. With his nomination for the CM election, the PTI has awarded two major offices in the PA to southern Punjab leaders. Earlier, the party got elected Rajanpur-based Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan Mazari, grandson of Mir Balkh Sher Mazari, as the deputy speaker. Usman Buzdar’s father Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Buzdar, the chief of Buzdar tribe who first got elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1985 non-party elections, remained an MPA on PML-Q’s ticket from 2002 to 2007. However, after he won the 2008 poll on Q-League ticket, he alongwith other lawmakers formed a forward bloc and joined the PML-N, enabling Shehbaz Sharif to form government in the province. While speaking to the media after the announcement, Imran Khan said, “Buzdar hails from the most under-privileged area of the province. He knows the problems of the people, and, therefore I have nominated him for this slot.” A source in PTI privvy to the developments leading to Usman Buzdar’s nomination says that Jehangir Khan Tareen played a crucial role in the matter. For the past few months, Tareen has held meetings with political heavyweights from the region in his efforts to counter Shah Mehmmod Qureshi’s clout in the party, since both hail from southern Punjab. The election for the CM’s slot will take place between Usman Buzdar and PML-N’s nominee Hamza Shehbaz on Sunday morning. Published in Daily Times, August 18th 2018.