PML-N issues show cause to its MPA for indiscipline

PESHAWAR: PML-N lawmaker Wajeehuz Zaman’s habit of speaking his mind has landed him in trouble as the party leadership has issued him a show cause notice for showing indiscipline.
The notice, issued by the PML-N Secretary General, gave him two days to explain his position after declaring that he won’t vote for the PML-N candidates in the forthcoming Senate elections unless Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif allocated funds for development work in Mansehra district.
The 49-year old Wajeehuz Zaman was elected MPA on the PML-N ticket from his native Mansehra in the May 2013 general election. This was the fourth time that he won election as MPA, twice on the PML-N ticket and on two occasions as PML-Q candidate. He also once served as provincial health minister.
Not one to mince words, Wajeehuz Zaman had told The News on Friday that he cannot vote for the PML-N candidates for the Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because the federal government, despite its promises, has yet to approve development funds for the constituencies of the party’s MPAs elected from Mansehra. “We have constituencies and our voters want us to resolve their problems and undertake development work. And we are the constituency of the prime minister. We expect our party’s government to help us in getting development work done,” he had added.
Wajeehuz Zaman’s comments published in The News on Saturday became the cause of the showcause notice issued to him. It is unclear if he would offer a reply to explain his position. The PML-N leadership could quickly take action against him and try to unseat him to send a loud and clear message that indiscipline won’t be tolerated and that all party legislators ought to vote for the PML-N candidates in the Senate polls. The PML-N high-ups cannot afford to lose Senate seats as they want to gain majority in the Upper House of Parliament and elect their nominee as the Senate chairman.
The PML-N has 16 MPAs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and it can get its candidate, Lt Gen (R) Salahuddin Tirmizi, for the general seat of the Senate elected if all of them vote for him. It was learnt that the general had not applied for the Senate ticket but was picked up by the prime minister and asked to contest the election.
This move annoyed the PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah as he was expecting the party ticket but was instead named as the covering candidate. Sabir Shah didn’t file his nomination papers as a mark of protest as he felt it would be embarrassing for him to become the covering candidate despite being the provincial head of the party.
Wajeehuz Zaman’s mother Fouzia Fakharuz Zaman is contesting the Senate seat for women as an independent candidate. This too has angered the PML-N leadership. But a major cause of the PML-N leadership’s annoyance with Wajeehuz Zaman is his decision to become a proposer of the independent candidate Waqar Ahmad Khan for the Senate and seconder for his brother Ammar Ahmad Khan, who is also contesting to become a Senator on the ticket of Qaumi Watan Party. This is being seen as a serious breach of indiscipline.