Senate election: another test of PML-N Punjab cohesion

LAHORE: The election to a Senate seat in Punjab, vacated by Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar after his election as the governor, would be another test of the Pakistan Muslim League-N Punjab party cohesion.

In the near past, the party failed twice to get the votes of all its MPAs during the elections of the speaker and chief minister in the Punjab Assembly.

The Senate elections are likely to be a close contest with the margin of victory and defeat being 10 votes, as the difference of seats is 20 between the opposition and the ruling parties’ alliances. The Punjab Assembly currently is a house of 371 members, though only 354 had taken the oath.

The PML-N has a total strength of 160 members in the assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 187, while Pakistan People’s Party has seven seats. With the PPP included in the opposition camp in principle, the PML-N officially has 167 votes in the Punjab Assembly.

In the election for Punjab Assembly speaker, 12 of the PML-N MPAs reportedly voted for the PTI candidate, while in the election for the CM, 16 PML-N votes were disqualified due to faulty ballot casting, while two did not show up on the election day.

PML-N Punjab spokesperson Malik Muhammad had stated that the party would thoroughly investigate the matter and take strict action against those going against the party line. However, according to the party insiders, no such investigation or action was taken.

When contacted, PML-N Punjab parliamentary leader Hamza Shahbaz said he had complete confidence in every MPA of his party and they were going to the election strong and confident. Commenting on the instances of voting anomalies, he said it was an undemocratic act of certain miscreants, who had been warned and action was under way against them. Therefore, they would not dare go against the party policy again, he added.

This time round, the PMLN has an edge as its candidate, Khwaja Ahmed Hassan, had been an active politician with loads of experience in governance. He had served as the mayor of the provincial metropolis and also worked closely with the chief minister as his key advisor in the past government. PTI candidate, Shahzad Waseem, is a novice, who represents the PTI as one of the founding members of the party. However, the PML-N had been campaigning against him with the pretext that he remained a minister in the cabinet of former president Pervez Musharraf.

When contacted, PML-N Punjab party spokesperson Malik Muhammad Ahmed said that the party had chalked out a comprehensive strategy to avoid a situation similar to the one occurring during the election of speaker and the CM. He said the party had divided its 167 votes into 15 groups with around 15 to 17 members in every group. Each group had been handed to a senior party leader as a coordinator, who was entrusted with the responsibility of training the members of the group on how to cast the vote, to keep in close contact with their group members and their activity and when to appear at the assembly to vote.

In addition to this, he said a meeting of almost all members had been arranged with the party’s parliamentary leader Hamza Shahbaz. It helped strengthen their bond with the party. The PML-N candidate is exceptionally better than the PTI’s, he concluded.

“We’ve campaigned aggressively. To be honest, it is a very close call,” said PML-N candidate Kh Ahmed Hassan, who sounded very optimistic regarding his prospects in the election.