Fawad Chaudhry: From pragmatism to populism.

ISLAMABAD -- PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, who is in police custody on the charges of sedition, has an interesting journey -- from being a pragmatic politician to becoming a 'populist' one.

Fawad's family was in politics before Partition and his forefathers had played a vital role in Pakistan Movement.

Chaudhry Altaf Hussain, Fawad's uncle, was a Punjab governor during the tenure of slain PPP chairperson and then premier Benazir Bhutto's second government.

His other uncle, Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, was the chief justice of the Lahore High Court from September 7, 2002, to December 12, 2007.

The PTI leader, who is a Supreme Court advocate by profession, was an active member of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) led by former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf.

Later, he joined the PPP and was appointed special assistant to prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf.

Fawad was also close to former premier Gilani and his family.

However, he was not given a PPP ticket in the 2013 general elections. He contested those polls on a PML-Q ticket. Later, he rejoined the PPP. Fawad was among a few political leaders who were close to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

In the meantime, he entered the field of electronic media as a political analyst.

In 2016, when a by-election was held in Jehlum district, Fawad was reluctant to join the PTI because of his close association with Bilawal.

Eventually, he did opt for a PTI ticket for the by-election, wherein he secured around 80,000 votes.

Later, he was appointed as the PTI spokesperson on then senior party leader Jahangir Tareen's recommendation.

He even shifted from Lahore to Islamabad.

Subsequently, he grew closer to PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

In the 2018 general elections, Imran asked him to contest simultaneously as a member of the Punjab Assembly and an MNA and he won both the seats.

Fawad was also a strong candidate for the post of the Punjab chief minister after the 2018 elections. However, the PTI chief gave him the post of the federal information minister, only to change his portfolio later.

When Fawad was appointed the federal minister for science and technology, he questioned Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar over his 'poor' governance in the province.

However, then premier Imran was unhappy over his criticism of Buzdar and PM's adviser Firdous Ashiq Awan.

Fawad was among the few federal ministers, who were against the filing of a presidential reference against...