Waseem Qadir remained associated with PPP, PML-N

LAHORE: Former PML-N MPA from Lahore and sitting Deputy Mayor of Ravi Town Waseem Qadir who has announced joining PTI is son of former PPP MPA late Chaudhry Ghulam Qadir.

Waseem Qadir joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf after ending its 11-year long affiliation with PML-N but this is noteworthy that PTI wasn’t his second party. Before joining PML-N a decade ago just before the arrival of Sharifs to Pakistan in November 2007, Ch Wasim Qadir’s loyalties were with PPP on whose ticket his father Chaudhry Ghulam Qadir contested the 1988 and later the 2002 elections.

Chaudhry Ghulam Qadir, the father of Ch Waseem Qadir, combated Ziaul Haq Martial Law for 11 years and in 1988 general elections, Benazir Bhutto, then Chairperson of party awarded him the party ticket and he was fielded from then PP-129 and he emerged victorious while bagging around 25,000 votes while defeating the IJI candidate Nisar Ahmed. In that period, Waseem Qadir also actively participated in the campaign of his father and in later years, he got settled in Norway. However, his loyalties remained with PPP and his father Ch Ghulam Qadir was once again fielded by PPP, for a National Assembly seat in 2002 general elections but he lost to PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

By 2007, Chaudhry Waseem Qadir had developed good relationship with the PML-N leadership and in February 2008 general elections, Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif awarded him ticket from PP-144, the seat that fell under then NA-123 from where Makhdoom Javed Hashmi was contesting. Waseem Qadir won the seat comfortably served as MPA for the five years term. In 2013 general elections, he was denied the ticket and Bau Akhter was fielded from the seat that Waseem won in 2008. He served as Chairman of Mines and Minerals Department Punjab for sometime and after the 2015 Local Government elections, he was nominated as the party candidate for the slot of Deputy Mayor Ravi Town and still serving on the slot.

This is noteworthy that already combating serious challenges, the PML-N has suffered two main blows in the ongoing month that include the first major revolt in its base camp, Lahore in form of Waseem Qadir and the defeat from PP-168, a seat that Khawaja Saad Rafique won with a huge margin in 2018 general elections. Waseem quit PML-N after his indulging in a heated war of words with Opposition leader Hamza Shahbaz in Model Town over the issue related to issuance of tickets to councillors in LG by-polls.