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Thursday March 28, 2024

PML-N clean sweeps in Punjab, Islamabad

Senate elections

By our correspondents
March 06, 2015
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) grabbed all the available Senate seats in the Punjab and the federal capital, thus boosting its prospects of claiming the coveted slot of Senate chairman.
It won seven general and two reserved seats each for technocrats and women in the Punjab with one general seat and one reserved seat for women from the federal capital. However, Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir could not grab an expected general seat from Balochistan where the party has 20 MPAs, as an independent candidate Yousaf Badini was among the winners.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won six seats and the JUI-F and Awami National Party (ANP) one seat each in the unofficial results of the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
According to unofficial results, the PTI’s minority candidate John Kenneth Williams obtained 70 votes and won his seat. Samina Abid, the PTI candidate on a woman’s seat, secured 66 votes. Noman Wazir, a PTI candidate on a technocrats’ seat, also won his seat. ANP’s Sitara Ayaz got 30 votes and won the seat. JUI-F’s Muhammad Yaqub Sheikh became a Senator on a technocrat’s seat.
On general seats, JI chief Sirajul Haq was declared successful on a general seat. The PML-N’s Javed Abbasi was successful on a technocrats’ seat while JUI-F’s Maulana Attaur Rehman and PTI’s Shibli Riaz were also declared successful. PTI candidate Liaquat Tarakai won the general seat.
The Senate election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was marred by a prolonged disruption over allegations of irregularities. Polling remained suspended for over five-and-a-half hours. The polling time was extended to 8:00pm from 4:00pm but it continued till 11:00pm.
The extension in polling caused a delay in the results of the elections. Till this report was filed after midnight, results on some seats were still coming in.
Before the counting, KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak hoped PTI would win seven seats. He said no one could buy PTI lawmakers as they were neither on sale nor anyone could buy them. He asserted that PTI lawmakers were not involved in horse-trading.
Answering a question, he said Nighat Orakzai of PPP lied about Rs50 million bribe offered by a PTI MPA. “We did not use money and did not bully lawmakers of other parties,” he added.
He said horse-trading would continue if five-member and 10-member parties wanted to make it 20-member. A party with 16 members, he continued, wanted to also win a technocrat seat, indicating it was not possible without engaging in horse-trading. He said they could not complain of anyone else if political parties were encouraging horse-trading themselves.
He said opposition must be blamed for the disturbance in the polling process. Six blank ballot papers were found during counting but it was unclear who used them. Earlier, opposition parties stopped the process of election by saying that PTI lawmakers dropped unauthorised ballot papers to take out official ones that were marked outside.
In Punjab, in a surprising turn of events, however, the joint PML-Q and PPP candidate Nadeem Afzal Chan managed to bag 27 votes in spite of a combined parliamentary strength of only 16 MPAs in the Punjab Assembly.
As per unofficial results presented by former law minister Rana Sanaullah, Information Minister and serving PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid secured 44 votes, Federal Minister for Environment Senator Mushahidullah Khan 41, PML-N Sindh General Secretary Nehal Hashmi 41, Dr Ghous Niazi 43, Lt Gen (R) Abdul Qayyum 43, Saleem Zia 42 and Chaudhry Tanvir Ahmed 41 votes.
On the technocrat seats, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and Prof Sajid Mir bagged 157 and 149 votes respectively. Meanwhile, PML-N MNA Ayesha Raza Farooq grabbed 144 votes and Begum Najma Hameed 157 votes on the two seats reserved for women.
For the opposition, the contest tilted heavily in the ruling party’s favour with PPP reserved women seat candidate Sarwat Malik only managed 24 votes and Malik Nosher Khan Langrial - candidate on the seats reserved for technocrats - 21 votes.
Sana said a total of 15 votes were rejected for errors on the ballot papers. A total of 337 votes were cast in the Senate polls with three PML-N MPAs not taking part in the Senate polls due to the suspension of Shamoona Badshah Qaisrani (DG Khan) by the ECP, absence of Raja Shaukat Aziz Bhatti (Rawalpindi) and illness of Malik Muhammed Zahoor Anwar (Chakwal).
The PPP and the PML-Q have only eight MPAs each in the House with the confirmed support of three independents - Ehsan Riaz Fatyana, Sardar Nasarullah Khan Dareshak, and Ali Salman Siddique - but they surprised everyone as Chan grabbed more than the expected tally of 20 votes.
Although, the PML-Zia and Bahawalpur National Awami Party MPA Iftikhar Hassan Gillani and JI MPA Dr Syed Waseem Akhter voted for the ruling party, the PPP and the PML-Q still managed to embarrass its powerful opponent with 27 votes that led to speculations of possible dissent within the ranks of PML-N.
It is likely that the PML-N MPAs dissatisfied with the party over neglecting south Punjab in the Senate polls and preference of the candidates from Sindh - Mushahidullah Khan, Nehal Hashmi, and Saleem Zia - had voted for Chan in violation of the top brass’ orders.
Sources in PPP told The News that Chan had in fact grabbed 30 votes out of which three were rejected by the returning officer. Despite his loss, the number of votes gained by Chan has proved fears of horse-trading in the Senate polls.
Polling for the Senate 2015 began in Punjab Assembly on Thursday at 9:30am with Punjab Minister for Minorities and Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sindhu casting the first vote. Sindhu is from the PML-N Faisalabad Division which was tasked with the job to cast votes for Pervaiz Rashid.
Different rooms in the assembly were dedicated to all of the party divisions - each comprising 45 voters - constituted for Senate polls by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz Sharif made an appearance early in the morning and met individually with the party MPAs to ensure that the party strategy devised for the polls was being followed.
Later in the afternoon, Shahbaz returned from Saudi Arabia to cast his vote. Senate candidates, Pervaiz Rashid, Mushahidullah, Ayesha Raza, Najma, Niazi, Hashmi, Zafarul Haq, Abdul Qayyum, Saleem Zia and Chaudhry Tanvir courted the PML-N MPAs under their divisions. Prof Sajid, however, was not present on the crucial day.
The polling was briefly paused on Thursday with objections of Chan who claimed that the members were showing ballots to the PML-N leadership before casting their votes. Accompanying Chan in show of support as designated polling agents, former senior minister Raja Riaz and former MPA Shaukat Basra also protested, as they were successful in stopping the polling temporarily.
The PML-N and PPP members also exchanged hot words, with the PML-N leaders criticising Raja Riaz for bringing his entourage into the assembly premises and PPP members censuring the ruling party for installing TV cameras in the polling booths.
Faiza Ahmed Malik of PPP complained that the PML-N MPAs were stuffing the ballot box and carrying mobile phones into the booths in violation of the ECP orders. Later, Chan at a press conference claimed that eight ballot papers were missing the returning officer’s stamp. The casting of vote in Senate polls by Acting Governor and Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal also raised a few eyebrows in the PPP circles.
Sardar Jamal Leghari from DG Khan and Mian Tahir of Faisalabad, it is learnt, did not wish to vote for Prof Sajid and were switched at the last moment to the Zafar-ul-Haq group.Meanwhile, independent MPA Inamullah Khan Niazi, who has recently rejoined the PML-N, was adjusted in the Pervaiz Rashid group.
The polling closed at 4:00pm on Thursday after hours of heated political activity and the last vote was cast by Education and Youth Affairs Minister Rana Mashhood. Celebrations at the PML-N party offices commenced soon after the closing of polls and successful candidates were greeted by jubilant party workers with rose garlands in their hands.
In Islamabad, the PML-N pocketed the two seats of the Senate from the federal capital with Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Raheela Magsi bagging 211 and 205 votes respectively.
On the general seat, Jhagra’s rival Imran Ashraf, who is younger brother of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf of PPP, got 68 votes. Nargis Faiz Malik of PPP received 79 votes on the women reserved seat against Magsi.
In Balochistan, Niamatullah Zehri of PML-N, Abdul Ghafoor Haidri of JUI-F, Usman Kakar and Sardar Muhammad Azam Khan of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Hasil Khan Bizenjo of National Party, Dr Jahanzaib Jamaldini of BNP-Mengal and Yousaf Badeni (independent) were the victorious candidates on the seven general seats.
Mir Kabir Ahmed of National Party and Engineer Agha Shahbaz Khan Durrani of PML-N were elected as senators on the two seats reserved for technocrats, while Kalsoom Parveen of PML-N and Gul Bushra of PkMAP grabbed the women seats.
Dr Ashok Kumar of National Party was elected as Senator on the seat reserved for minorities.The victory of Badeni - an independent - on a general seat defeating Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir of PML-N fortified the impression of horse-trading and dissent within the ranks of PML-N which has 20 MPAs in Balochistan Assembly.
In Sindh, Engineer Gianchand, Islamuddin Sheikh, Abdul Latif Ansari, Rehman Malik and Salim Mandviwala of PPP were elected on the general seats. MQM candidates - Mian Muhammad Ateeq and Khushbakht Shujaat - were the other two winning candidates.
According to unofficial results, the strength of MQM members in the Senate has now reached eight. Two candidates each of PPP and MQM have already been elected unopposed on the reserved seats for women and technocrats.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said that with the holding of Senate elections, another phase of democratic process had been accomplished.He said the present government believed in strengthening and ensuring the sanctity of the democratic institutions.
The prime minister while talking to a delegation of Pakistani community members here said, 2018 would be the year of elections of both the National Assembly and Senate, for which the government would introduce election reforms in cooperation with all the parties.He said Insha Allah, 2018 elections would be free of all the weaknesses of the past.The prime minister while lauding the role of expatriate Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoyed deep rooted and historic ties since the inception of Pakistan.