Senate election – Rs5 bn expected to change hands

Comment
ISLAMABAD: The biggest buying and selling of MPAs is expected to take place at the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the minimum number of MPAs required to win a Senate seat is 17. The PPP has only five MPAs but it has fielded four senatorial candidates and is scheming to get two elected.
Similarly, the ANP has only five MPAs but is struggling to get one elected. The PML-N has 14 MPAs and needs to garner the support of additional three to get Lt-Gen (R) Salahuddin Tirmizi elected. For the record, 11 PTI MPAs have already constituted a like-minded group.
Just add up the entire buying and selling and the total sum changing hands easily crosses Rs2 billion. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) has been a hub of buying and selling of votes. Imagine; 11 Fata MNAs are going to elected four senators. Historically, Fata MNAs have managed to double their life-term net worth right before every Senate elections. Do the sum and the entire buying and selling is expected to be in the general vicinity of at least a billion rupees.
The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan has never allowed itself to be left behind in this circus of buying and selling. In Balochistan, only nine MPAs can actually make you a senator. The PML-N has 22 MPAs but has fielded six senatorial candidates and the party is anxious to win all six seats.
PML-N’s Balochistan President Sardar Sanaullah Khan Zehri has successfully managed to snatch two senate tickets; one for his real brother and another one for his brother-in-law. For the record, 22 Balochistan MPAs have expressed reservations over ticket allocations. Just add up the entire buying and selling in a province spread over 347,190 square kilometres and the total sum changing hands easily crosses a billion rupees.
The truth within the Provincial Assembly of Punjab is that PML-N’s women parliamentarians are getting a hefty Rs250 million in development funds but their male counterparts are not going to be any richer before or after March 5. In Punjab, 53 MPAs equal a senator but the PML-N has 312 in a house of 371. In Punjab, the PML-N is expected to win all eleven senatorial seats with little or no hard cash changing hands.
The PML-N and PTI wanted an open ballot because they had lost confidence in their MPAs. The PPP, on the other hand, is short on MPAs and therefore wants a secret ballot. The PPP also wants to see its very own Rehman Malik (not necessarily the person but the phenomenon) in the chairman’s office. Is Rs2 billion too much to retain the prized office?