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Thursday March 28, 2024

Expediency defeats transparency

ISLAMABAD: A total of 14 independent candidates and a couple of highly well-off contestants, belonging to different political parties, vying for the Senate seats, have triggered allegations of massive corruption, provoking some parliamentary players to decisively check the nasty game.The move to eliminate dishonesty and fraudulence through a constitutional amendment

By Tariq Butt
March 01, 2015
ISLAMABAD: A total of 14 independent candidates and a couple of highly well-off contestants, belonging to different political parties, vying for the Senate seats, have triggered allegations of massive corruption, provoking some parliamentary players to decisively check the nasty game.
The move to eliminate dishonesty and fraudulence through a constitutional amendment has been sabotaged by the political parties that are poised to incite defections in parliamentary forces with the force of money.
But at the same time, these dissenters are of the view that since the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) fears desertion of its lawmakers in the Balochistan assembly and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) apprehends a similar consequence in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) legislature, they have teamed up for the constitutional amendment.
However, it is noteworthy that there is not a single independent contestant eyeing Punjab and Sindh seats of the Senate because of the strong political parties that have hold over these provincial assemblies. There have been no charges, whatsoever, of money changing hands in these two provinces. An agreement between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has resulted in getting their nominees elected unopposed according to their respective numerical strength in the provincial legislature.
There is a large battalion of independent candidates, nine to be precise, desiring to get the Senate seats from Balochistan, which doesn’t enjoy a good name in this respect, if the previous Senate elections are any guide. The PML-N and PML-Q are faced with the fear and threat of defections in this assembly.
As many as five independent contestants are aspiring for the seven general seats; two are hoping to be elected on an equal number of technocrats’ seats; and one each is fighting for the women’s and non-Muslims’ seats in the Balochistan legislature.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), another province that is suspected to be hit by corruption in the Senate elections, has five independents in the field. Three of them are dreaming for the general seats while two for the women’s seats.
In addition, independents dominate the Senate elections for the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) where there are a total of twenty competitors. Of them 19 are independents while one has been fielded by the PML-N. Thus, political parties have not taken any interest in putting up their nominees from Fata contrary to the 2013 general elections, when they had sponsored their representatives for the National Assembly.
The PPP, which has nailed the proposed constitutional amendment to curb corruption, has generated much suspicions and interest by putting up three candidates in KP while it has even less than one-third of the minimum required lawmakers to elect even one of its contestants.
KP has just five legislators in the 124-member assembly but it has fielded two nominees for the general seats and one for a technocrat’s seat. In this legislature, at least 17.7 lawmakers are needed to elect one senator on the general seat while almost three times more members than this number are required to choose anyone contesting for a technocrat’s seat.
One of its candidates, vying for a general seat, was the richest member of previous National Assembly, according to his statement of assets and liabilities filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
As per the ECP record, two fabulously rich brothers, Waqar Ahmed Khan and Ammar Ahmed Khan, who were earlier elected to the Senate on the PPP tickets, are now fighting as independents. However, Waqar Ahemd Khan has since joined Aftab Sherpao’s Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), which has only ten lawmakers, facing the deficiency of some eight members to elect one senator on the general seat.
The PPP cherishes large-scale defections from the PML-N in the Punjab assembly. While its eight members with the help of an equal number of PML-Q lawmakers are nowhere near the minimum required number to elect even one senator on a general seat, it has sponsored four candidates. The basic premise of its hope is that several PML-N lawmakers, being fed up with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s style of governance, will support its representatives out of sheer frustration. At least 53 lawmakers are needed to elect one senator on the general seat while many more are required to make a candidate for a technocrat’s seat win.
The PPP has nominated Nadim Afzal Chan and Shaukat Mehmood for the general seats; Malik Nosher Khan Langrial for the technocrat’s seat; and Sarwat Malik for the woman’s seat. The PML-N has an unprecedented grip over the Punjab assembly and is going to clinch all the eleven Senates if no miraculous development takes place. Only the PML-N and PPP have sponsored candidates in the Punjab assembly.
On the contrary, the KP assembly presents the spectacle of a fish market where parliamentary parties, which have no sufficient numerical power to elect even one senator, put up more than one nominee. In this category fall the Awami National Party, QWP, Jamiat Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and of course the PPP.
However, to keep the exercise clean and uncontaminated only the PTI and PML-N have fielded only as many candidates as they have the numerical strength to elect them. The PML-N, National Party, and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awam Party of Mehmood Achakzai have also done the same in the Balochistan assembly.