Senate polls without PM, CM

LAHORE: For the first time in Pakistan’s history, polling for the Upper House of Parliament is being held in the absence of the prime minister and the chief minister of Punjab - the largest federating unit. The reason is simple. The prime minister - Leader of the House in the National Assembly - and the chief minister - Leader of the House in Punjab Assembly (the largest electoral college for the Senate polls) - are on a foreign visit.
This three-day visit on the Saudi king’s invitation, at a time when all the four provinces as well as Centre have to elect half of the Senate members, has come as a surprise for many within and outside the party.
Although, there is no big threat to the PML-N in Punjab where it is expected to make a clean sweep, the party leaders, requesting anonymity, expressed sheer surprise over the sudden trip.
Some of them were of the view that at least one of the senior leaders should have been among the party’s MPs when every vote, whether in Punjab, KP or Balochistan possessed significance.
Some of the party members even believe that the chief minister’s absence may have a negative impact on most of the MPs who have been contacted by the PPP which is making all-out efforts to stage an upset.
Never in Punjab, whether it was the Senate elections of 1994 in the PPP-PML-J era with Manzoor Wattoo being the chief minister or 1997 when Shahbaz was the CM or even in 1991 when Ghulam Hyder Wayne was the provincial chief executive, were the Senate elections held in the absence of the leader of the House.
In 2003 and 2006, the then CM Pervaiz Elahi had himself monitored the entire process to grab maximum votes for the party candidates.
In 2009 and 2012, while Shahbaz Sharif was the CM, there was no precedent of Senate polls being held without the leader of the House.
In centre as well, whether it was Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Shaukat Aziz, Yusuf Raza Gilani, not a single time, polling was done in the absence of the sitting premier whose presence mean a lot to the party loyalists on the polling day.
It is surprising to note that the Sharif brothers chose to leave the country at this vital phase which followed a political turmoil amid the allegations of massive horse-trading, and the ruling party had tried in vain to bring a constitutional amendment to pre-empt the stigma of purchasing the loyalties of elected members.
The PML-N, just a week ago, was making maximum efforts to build consensus to curb horse-trading, had convened an all parties conference and even convinced the PTI to support the proposed 22nd amendment, meant to combat horse trading.
In the absence of top party leaders, Hamza Shahbaz, who also hosted a reception in the honour of Senate candidates and MPAs at 180-H, Model Town, will be looking after the Senate polls.
The senior PML-N leaders seem to be answerless to the query why the country’s leadership had preferred to pay a visit to Saudi Arabia amid Senate polls.