Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi (Punjabi, Urdu: چودہری پرویز الہی) (born 1 November 1945), is a Pakistani politician. He was the Chief Minister of Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, from 2002 to 2007.
Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is a son of Chaudhry Manzoor Elahi and nephew of late Pakistani politician Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi. Zahoor started life as a policeman but he turned his family's fortunes in politics and business His family is commonly referred to as Chaudhrys of Gujrat and they were born into a Waraich family of Jats.
His cousin and brother-in-law Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from May to August 2004. He was the parliamentary leader of the ruling PML (Q) party during the period 2002-2007. He is also the Punjab President of PML-Q and was leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, He gave his resignation to Dr. Fahmida Mirza on 14 September 2008. The new opposition leader is from PML (N) Mr Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
2008 election
In the February 2008 parliamentary election, Elahi ran for the National Assembly seats as a PML-Q candidate, and it was believed that the party wanted him to become Prime Minister after the election, although not officially declared as the candidate for premiership. He ran for the seats NA-58 in Attock, NA-61 in Chakwal, and NA-187 in Bahawalpur, however. Elahi was the PML-Q's candidate for Prime Minister following the election; in the parliamentary vote, held on 24 March 2008, he was defeated by Yousaf Raza Gillani of the PPP, receiving 42 votes against 264 for Gillani.
His son Moonis Elahi also participated in the elections. After a very publicized campaign which cost the PML Q a lot in terms of finance, Moonis Elahi lost the provincial assembly seat from Lahore he was running for, however he won the provincial assembly seat from Gujrat and was elected to the Punjab Province's assembly for the first time.
Elahi is still the party president of PML Q in Punjab Province and is gearing up his party for the next election.
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