A man of substance

Though he was sitting in the National Assembly as a PTI-backed independent at the time of his passing, at the age of 83, Mian Muhammad Azhar had started his political career a little late in life, running for a Lahore Metropolitan Corporation seat from his stronghold of Sant Nagar at the age of 45, after a couple of decades in the family’s steel business.

The real friendship, it was said, was between Mian Azhar’s eldest brother and Mian Nawaz’s father, Mian Sharif himself. However, when Mian Nawaz needed a Mayor for Lahore, it was to Mian Azhar that he turned.

In Lahore’s politics, the Mayor had to be an Arain. From 1979 to 1982, the Mayor of Lahore was Mian Shujaur Rehman, whose son Mujtaba is presently the Punjab finance minister. Mian Shuja was one of the Baghbanpura Arains, one of the most important biradris of the city. At the same time, he was related (albeit rather distantly) to Gen Ziaul Haq.

Mian Azhar was like Zia, a Jullundri Arain. Nawaz was that very typical Lahori, an Amritsari Kashmiri, so that made Mian Azhar a fellow-Muhajir. In that era of identity politics, that was important.

Thus there was a certain appropriateness when he hosted the Mayor of Karachi in 1989, Dr Farooq Sattar. Farooq Sattar had become an MNA in the November 1988 general election, but Mian Azhar had to wait until January to join him there, via the by-election there in January 1989 on the general seat that Nawaz had vacated in favour of the provincial one he needed to become CM.

Mian Azhar did not pay a return visit. Perhaps the two Mayors realized that a conference would have been better, with chief corporation officers also present, not bilateral discussions. And why just municipal corporations? Why not all municipalities (municipal committees and town committees)?

Mian Azhar moved up. He had maintained his mayoralty with his MNAship, but when he was appointed Punjab Governor in 1990, Benazir’s first government was dissolved. He became estranged from the Sharifs while Nawaz was PM and went first into the PML-Q and then the PTI. He was an MNA again at the time of his death, though now he was a stand-in for his son, Hammad Azhar, who had very briefly held the finance portfolio in the Imran Khan Cabinet.

I wonder how many people know that not only did he play football for Government College Lahore, but one of his teammates was none other than Arshad Lodhi, the longtime Punjab minister, who had the revenue portfolio for many years and then the law ministry. Now one could see the active and slim Mian Azhar as an ex-footballer, but not the well-built (enemies would say paunchy) Arshad Lodhi.

Well, Mian Azhar may have passed away, but the spirit of Shan Masood is alive and well. T20 counterpart Salman Ali Agha is a worthy successor, as he showed against Bangladesh, against whom he lost 3-1, allowing them to add a T20 series victory to their recent 2-0 whitewash in Tests. I suppose you’ll have Afghanistan and Ireland scrambling to get a series against Pakistan. In any format, because they’re feeling lucky. I see Rizwan the keeper, has become the 50-over captain. Agha keeps the T20 captaincy, either because, like Shan in Tests, he cannot be kept away, or because the PCB believes in him and that he has new heights to conquer. Like losing a T20 match by an inning.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Must Read

PM tells Interior Minister to start work on Gwadar Safe City...

Premier Shehbaz, Mohsin Naqvi also discuss law and order situation in Balochistan Initial plan prepared in 2016, CDWP approved first phase of Gwadar...