Politicians

Haji Atta-ur-Rehman

By Asif ShehzadPublished 13 November 2026

Atta-ur-Rehman: Jahanian's Long-Serving PML-N Representative

Ask anyone in Jahanian about Haji Atta-ur-Rehman and the reply usually starts with the town, not with a party. For more than two decades he has been part of the town's daily life. He has run its municipal affairs, represented its traders and, from 2018 to 2023, sat in the Punjab Assembly for PP-210 Khanewal-VIII on a Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) ticket.

He is not a national headline figure. His story is a local one: a Jahanian businessman who moved up from city government to the provincial assembly. Supporters often call him Khadim-e-Jahanian, the servant of Jahanian. To understand him, you have to understand the town that keeps sending him back into politics.

A son of Jahanian

Atta-ur-Rehman was born in Jahanian, Khanewal district, on 1 January 1962. His father was Nazir Ahmed. He studied to matriculation level and went into business instead of further study, according to his Punjab Assembly profile.

That choice shaped the rest of his life. Jahanian is a market town that runs on cotton, wheat and the trade around them. A local businessman there knows the arhtis, shopkeepers and farmers by name. Atta-ur-Rehman built his standing in that world first, and his politics grew out of it.

Politics also runs in the family. His brother, Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir, has been elected to the National Assembly several times, including in 2008 and 2013. In Jahanian the two brothers are a familiar pair: one in Islamabad, the other closer to home.

From city hall to the Punjab Assembly

His political career started in local government. He served two terms as City Nazim of Jahanian between 2002 and 2008. Later, when elected local councils returned, he chaired the Municipal Committee Jahanian from 2014 to 2018.

That is about ten years of running the town's civic affairs: streets, drains, streetlights, sanitation and the daily complaints that come with them. During his time as nazim, he is credited with keeping the town's electrification and drainage systems running and finishing a number of development schemes (Wikipedia).

Alongside his civic role he stayed active in business bodies. He was the founding president of a chamber of commerce in 2008. In 2016 he became a Vice-President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), a rare national post for a trader from a small Punjab town.

In July 2018 he moved up to provincial politics. Contesting PP-210 Khanewal-VIII for PML-N, he won with 48,797 votes (APP). It was a close race: PTI's Khalid Javed got 45,229 votes, and independent Karam Dad Wahla got 22,818 (Hamariweb).

Election	Seat	Party	Votes	Result
2024 general election	PP-210 Khanewal-VI	PML-N	47,343	Runner-up
2018 general election	PP-210 Khanewal-VIII	PML-N	48,797	Won
2014–2018	Municipal Committee Jahanian	—	—	Chairman
2002–2008	City Government Jahanian	—	—	City Nazim (two terms)

Five years on the opposition benches

His assembly term ran from 15 August 2018 until the Punjab Assembly was dissolved on 14 January 2023. For most of it PML-N sat in opposition while PTI governed the province, apart from a short stretch in 2022. An opposition MPA has less say over development funds, so much of his work turned on lobbying, follow-up and keeping his voters close.

His politics has always centred on the town itself. Ten years in city government had taught him how district offices work. He knew which files get stuck and whom to call to move them. For many constituents the MPA's dera was simply where you went when the town's problems needed a hearing.

His background is also a little unusual for Punjab politics. Many rural seats in Khanewal have long gone to big landowning families. Atta-ur-Rehman came up through the bazaar and the municipal office, which gives him a different kind of voter base: traders, town residents and a working-class electorate that cares about civic services.

The 2024 rematch

After the 2023 redrawing of constituencies, Jahanian tehsil became PP-210 Khanewal-VI. In the February 2024 general election, Atta-ur-Rehman faced Khalid Javed again, the PTI candidate he had narrowly beaten in 2018.

This time the result reversed. Khalid Javed, standing as a PTI-backed independent, won with 54,680 votes. Atta-ur-Rehman came second with 47,343, and IPP's Karam Dad Wahla was third with 19,427 (Election Pakistani).

The loss came in an election where PTI-backed independents did well across much of Punjab. Even so, his vote held up. He got almost the same number of votes as in his winning 2018 race, about 1,450 fewer, which shows a loyal base in Jahanian. He lost because more voters turned out for his opponent, not because his own supporters left.

Today he no longer holds an assembly seat, but he remains a well-known figure in Jahanian. His brother Iftikhar Nazir keeps the family's presence in the National Assembly.

A town politician, first and last

Atta-ur-Rehman's career follows a path that is less common now: business owner, then city nazim, municipal chairman, and finally MPA, all without leaving his hometown. His supporters see a man who knows Jahanian street by street. His rivals have managed to beat him at the ballot box. Both would agree on one thing: in Jahanian, his name still carries weight.

Whatever comes next for him, his story is worth knowing for anyone who wants to understand how politics works in Khanewal's towns. It is less about grand speeches and more about drains, streetlights, traders' meetings and a door that stays open.