Moonis Elahi

Chaudhry Moonis Elahi (born 12 April 1976) is a Pakistani politician hailing from Punjabi Jatt Warraich family, who has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from October 2018 to August 2023. He has been the Minister for Water Resources from 13 July 2021 till 10 April 2022 when the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan succeeded. Previously, he was a member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab from 2008 to May 2018.

Early life and education
Elahi was born on 12 April 1976 in Lahore, Pakistan to Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. He received a BBA degree in 1999 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his education, he returned to Pakistan and joined his family business.

Political career
Elahi ran for the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML (Q)) from two constituencies (Lahore and Gujrat) in the 2008 Pakistani general election. He won the Gujrat constituency from the candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party named Ch Nasir Samma who got 37137 votes and he was unsuccessful in the Lahore constituency where he lost the seat to a candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League (N). He served as a member of the following Standing Committees in Punjab Assembly for the term 2008-2013:

Elahi ran for the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of the PML (Q) from two constituencies (Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat) in the 2013 Pakistani general election and was successful in both. He vacated the Mandi Bahauddin seat to retain his native seat in Gujrat.

He has been a fierce advocate for the Kalbagh Dam Project.

In September 2018, he was allocated PML-Q ticket to contest a by-election from Constituency NA-69 (Gujrat-II).

He was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan as a candidate of PML-Q from Constituency NA-69 (Gujrat-II) in by-election held on 14 October 2018.

After the 2018 Pakistani general election, Pakistan Muslim League (Q) under an agreement had joined the PTI led coalition government. In 2019, differences surfaced between the two coalition partners when the PML(Q) complained of delay in implementation of the terms in the agreement. Elahi met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in a bid to solve the differences. In this meeting the PM asked Elahi for continued PML(Q) support to the Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar. Later during a TV talk show Elahi denied rumors of any PTI-Q coalition split. However, the deadlock between the coalition partners persisted.

On 10 February 2020, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Muslim League (Q) leaders met to resolve the issues. Later Moonis Elahi tweeted that the PML(Q)and PTI alliance will continue. As a result, on 13 July 2021, Imran Khan made Moonis the Federal Minister for Water Resources.

On 19 July 2021, he was sworn in as Federal Minister for Water Resources. President Arif Alvi administered the oath.

On 21 February 2023, he left PML(Q) and joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) along with his father Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and ten former PML(Q) members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab over political rifts with the president of PML(Q), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

He ran for a seat in the Provincial Assembly from PP-32 Gujrat-V as a candidate of the PTI in the 2023 Punjab provincial election.

NICL corruption scandal
In 2010, Elahi was accused of corruption of Rs 320 million in the NICL scandal during his father's tenure as the Chief Minister of Punjab. Elahi denied the charges levelled against him. He was declared a proclaimed offender for failure to appear before the investigation committee and as a result, he was arrested and jailed. He was later acquitted in 2011 due to inconclusive evidence and in 2012 all charges in the regard were dropped. A report stated that Elahi had declared the value of his assets at not more than Rs 0.5 million in 2007. However, in 2009, he had assets worth over Rs 700 million.

In 2016, he was named in the Panama Papers for having offshore bank accounts outside Pakistan. However his father claimed that Elahi had nothing to do with offshore accounts. In 2017, National Accountability Bureau begin fresh investigation into Elahi's wealth.