Parties, candidates finalise ‘arrangements’ for Senate election

PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the opposition parties in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have almost finalised ‘arrangements’ to ensure success of their respective nominees in the Senate elections being held on March 3.

The ‘arrangements’ made are difficult to explain, but it is aimed at winning seats in the Senate through every means possible. Still tall claims are being made by the political parties they were blocking the way of horse-trading.

Out of the total 11 vacant Senate seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seven are general seats along with two each for women and technocrats. Irrespective of their numerical strength in the provincial assembly, all parties have fielded quite a few candidates in the hope of getting the required votes from other parties. 

Every political leader is claiming to have strived to field candidates with consensus to curb horse-trading and sale and purchase of loyalties as this had earned a bad name for all politicians and their province in the past and would also be a black spot for them in the coming election.

A former MNA, who has the experience of contesting Senate election, termed all these claims as rubbish and said that both the ruling PTI and opposition, particularly the PPP, had completed the process by not only making arrangements to please their own members but also striking deals with other parties’ members.

“In the Senate elections, you will have to care for your own party’s members first and then those from other parties to secure their votes. This process has been completed before the polling for Senate elections,” he said. “This is the election year,” he remarked.

The ruling PTI, with 62 members, is making efforts to get elected six senators. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), with 16 members each, want to elect two senators on general and women reserved seats.

Out of its total nine members, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP)’s four have already parted ways with it. It wants to elect its one member on general and another on reserved seat.

The PPP, with seven members including former provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi, who came from PTI, wants to elect two senators on general and one woman. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) with seven members wants to see its provincial head Mushtaq Ahmad Khan elected on general seat. The Awami National Party (ANP), with five members, is focusing on winning one of the reserved seats for women.

But none of the members and party leaders could explain as to how they would elect a senator that requires more than 15 votes. Their simple argument is that the political parties could not leave the space open for their opponents and they would make seat-adjustment later after making alliances with other parties. They argue that once electoral alliances are made, every party will withdraw its nominees according to seat-adjustment formula.

“This is a gamble. The PTI and PPP are the major players and they have ensured the required strength for winning Senate seats by approaching MPAs from the PTI and QWP,” an insider claimed. He said the PPP was in a position to offer higher bid for votes than PTI. A source said that the senior party leaders and former provincial ministers, who had brought the MPAs from their respective areas to Islamabad, pocketed Rs5 million as their commission out of the total Rs30 million paid for one vote. 

Referring to the formula finalised at Islamabad, the source said the PPP could manage to elect two members on general seats and one on women seats by making an alliance with the JUI-F on women reserved and technocrat seats. Since the senior players have experience in Senate elections, they have secured guarantees to ensure that the lawmakers had not sold vote to someone else.

It may be recalled that some lawmakers in the past had sold their votes to more than one party and candidate. To avoid this happening again, the candidates and guarantors have taken steps to manage things and ensure smooth sailing this time.