LAHORE: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) and its allied parties are ready for the Senate elections, scheduled to be held on Tuesday (today).
In this regard, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz chaired a meeting here on Monday, which was attended by the PMLN leadership and parliamentarians of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PMLQ) and other allied parities. Senate candidates – Muhammad Aurangzeb, Musadik Malik, Khalil Tahir Sindhu, Bushra Anjum Butt and Anusha Rehman were also present. The meeting finalised a strategy for voting in the Senate elections and the election procedure was also explained to the MPAs.
Polling for five Senate seats from Punjab including two reserved for women, as many for technocrats, and one reserved for minorities would be held today.
PPP’s Ali Haider Gilani announced that the party candidate for Senate elections had withdrawn and the party parliamentarians in Punjab would vote for PMLN’s Bushra Butt and Anusha Rehman.
Ghazanfar Abbas Cheena of the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) also announced giving vote to the PMLN candidates, and thanked the meeting for supporting Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb. Musadik Malik said the credit of every success goes to PMLN Quaid Nawaz Sharif.
PMLN Senate candidate Bushra Anjum said she would be the voice of Punjab in the upper house of the parliament. Anusha Rehman also thanked the party leadership for trusting her.
The meeting also hailed the PPP woman candidates’ withdrawal as a gesture of goodwill by the party. The participants in the meeting also presented suggestions and recommendations.
Maryam Nawaz told the meeting she was the chief minister of all assembly members and she would always take along her allies.
Meanwhile, PPP senior leader Nadim Afzal Chan his party would support the PMLN candidates in Punjab in the Senate elections. Talking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly on Monday, he said the PPP candidate Faiza Malik should be considered retired now, as the party had decided to support the PMLN.
The PMLN is likely to win all five seats as it has majority in the house. Already, seven candidates on general seats have been elected unopposed in which the opposition bagged two, one Mohsin Naqvi was independent (though supported by the PMLN), whereas four others were directly linked with the PMLN.
Chan said the PPP had not made any demand for ministries. To a question related to Faisal Vawda, he said everyone was aware of the fact that he enjoyed the support of some specific circles.
Inside the Punjab Assembly, the session summoned on the requisition of the opposition could continue only for one day, and was prorogued. Ruling party MPA Shaukat Bhatti strongly criticised Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi. He alleged that Bushra Bibi was accused of involvement in the murder of an actress (Qandeel Baloch).
Bilal Yasmin, a PMLN legislator, said the worst kind of brutalities were perpetrated against the leadership of his party during the PTI rule. He said Rana Sanaullah Khan was tortured and persecuted. He said May-9 incident had hurt the sentiments of soldiers, who fought to defend the homeland.
Hafiz Farhat, an MPA of Sunni Ittehad Council, declared the incumbent government the production of Form 47. He said they were in government not because of the public support but due to rigging.
Speaker Punjab Assembly Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan chaired the session. He urged the members of both sides to show respect to each other.
