PML-N MPA says he won’t vote for party nominees in Senate polls

PESHAWAR: A provincial lawmaker belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has said he won’t vote for the party candidates in the Senate election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif didn’t release funds for development work in his native Mansehra district.
Talking to The News, Wajeehuzzaman maintained that he made the decision as he and other PML-N legislators were neglected by the party leadership since coming into power about two years ago “I took the stand as a mark of protest. I had no other option to attract the attention of my party leaders,” he stressed.
Wajeehuzzaman, who was elected MPA from Mansehra on the PML-N ticket in the May 2013 general election, refuted allegations that he had agreed to support the party candidates in the Senate polls after the recent meeting of the party’s MPAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the Prime Minister. “My support for the PML-N candidates in the Senate polls is linked to approval of development projects for Mansehra,” he maintained.
According to the 49-year old Wajeehuzzaman, his mother Fouzia Fakhruzzaman who is a former Senator was contesting as an independent candidate for the Senate’s seats for women. “She is in the field. She won’t withdraw from the contest,” he stressed.
Wajeehuzzaman, who has won the provincial assembly seat for the fourth time since winning his first election in 1997 and becoming the health minister, said he had made a commitment with independent candidate Waqar Ahmad Khan to vote for him in the Senate elections on the general seat. “It is true that I proposed Waqar Ahmad Khan’s candidature and seconded that of his brother Ammar Ahmad Khan, who later joined the Qaumi Watan Party. I won’t back out of my commitment,” he stressed.
When asked if he had been paid by Waqar Ahmad Khan for proposing his candidature and promising to vote for him in the Senate polls, Wajeehuzzaman argued that nobody could accuse him of selling his vote. “My voters trust me, lawmakers know me. I am not doing politics to make money. Rather, I have sold my ancestral property to pursue my politics,” he asserted.
Wajeehuzzaman disclosed that the only deal made by him with Waqar Ahmad Khan while proposing him as candidate for the Senate polls was that he would also help his mother to win the election to become a Senator. “In return for my vote, Waqar Ahmad Khan would also campaign for my mother and help her win the election for Senate,” he added.
“It is regrettable that I and other PML-N MPAs managed to meet the Prime Minister for the first time recently after the May 2013 elections. We were promised funds for development projects in our constituencies, but this has yet to materialize. Our party’s federal ministers refuse to meet us. All this made me angry and I have opted not to vote for the PML-N candidates in the Senate polls,” declared the outspoken Wajeehuzzaman.