Daily Times

Family-dominated politics has further strengthened its grip as another player belonging to a political family made it to the parliament after winning the by-elections from NA-60 Rawalpindi constituency.

With the entrance of Sheikh Rashid Shafiq into parliamentary politics, the Sheikh family has became the fourth political family of Rawalpindi who has two National Assembly seats in their home, Federal Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed made a hard fight to get his nephew elected. All this were done against the vision of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chief Imran Khan who is against politics of inheritance.

In Rawalpindi, Begum Najma Hameed’s family was the first that led the foundation of inheritance politics in Rawalpindi, when Najma Hameed herself was MNA, while her younger sister Tahira Aurangzeb was also given the same slot in the NA by Pakistan Muslim Leage-Nawaz (PMLN).

During the previous five years of PML-N government, one more female member of the same family was awarded a reserved seat in the NA – Maryam Aurangzeb – daughter of Tahira Aurangzeb. Currently, Hameed is a senator and Maryam Aurangzeb is MNA and spokesperson of PML-N.

The second family famous for inheritance politics is that of Chaudhary Tanveer Khan. In 1990’s elections, Tanveer Khan started his political career by winning a Punjab Assembly seat. After that, Chaudhary Arshad became Member of Provincial Assembly from the same family. In 2002, Raja Arshad – a close relative of Tanveer – became MPA on PMLN ticket, while in 2008 elections, Chaudhry Sarfaraz Afzal – nephew of Tanveer – was elected as MPA from the same constituency. Another relative of Tanveer – Yasir Raza Malik was elected MPA in 2008 on PML-N ticket from then PP-13. Later, he was disqualified in a fake degree case and his father Malik Ghulam Raza was elected as MPA from the same constituency.

Now in 2018’s by-elections, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed’s nephew Rasheed Shafiq was awarded PTI ticket and got elected as MNA after defeating PML-N candidate Sajjad Khan.

It is pertinent to mention that Shafiq contested the election NA-56 in 2002 elections as independent candidate but was defeated by PML-N candidate Hanif Abbasi.

Published in Daily Times, October 17^th 2018.