QWP biggest loser in Senate elections

PESHAWAR: The Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) was the biggest loser in the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it failed to win a single seat despite having 10 members in the provincial assembly, but it now faces another challenge to identify its two legislators who didn’t vote for party candidates.
In comparison, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) with five MPAs each won a seat in the Senate by making timely seat-adjustment with each other and with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F). The Jamaat-i-Islami with eight MPAs and the Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) with five members also managed to win one Senate seat each due to their electoral alliance with their senior coalition partner, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Before the March 5 polling day, it appeared that the Aftab Sherpao-led QWP had made a smart move by getting the wealthy independent candidate and former Senator, Ammar Ahmad Khan, to enter into its fold and awarding him the party ticket to contest the polls. However, the arrangement backfired as two out of the 10 QWP MPAs didn’t vote for him. Ammar Ahmad got eight votes and lost out to PPP’s Khanzada Khan, who was elected Senator with nine votes only.
The QWP leadership is now trying to figure out as to what when wrong. Efforts would be made to identify the two MPAs who defied the party decision to field Ammar Ahmad as the QWP candidate for the general seat of the Senate. It is possible they also didn’t vote for Abdul Malik, the QWP candidate for the technocrats’ seat in the Senate who was also defeated. The general perception is that they voted for someone else due to the lure of money, but this would only be established once the QWP is able to complete its investigations.
Identifying the MPAs who betrayed the party isn’t going to be easy. None of them would admit to selling vote in the Senate elections. Even if the disloyal MPAs are tracked down, taking action against them would be problematic. Rather, it could turn out to be a messy affair. This could lead to allegations and counter-allegations, a long legal battle, and filing a reference with the Election Commission to get the concerned legislators disqualified. The ANP went through all this when it made a few of its MPAs accountable some years ago for selling their votes. It named and shamed its vote-selling MPAs and expelled them from the party, but still they couldn’t be de-seated.
The 10 QWP MPAs include Aftab Sherpao’s eldest son Sikandar Sherpao, who is the provincial president and parliamentary party leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, former ministers Bakht Baidar from Lower Dir district and Ibrar Hussain from Mansehra, Abdul Karim from Swabi, Khalid Khan, Arshad Umarzai and Sultan Mohammad Khan from Charsadda, female legislators Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli and Meraj Humayun, and Gohar Nawaz from Haripur. The last-named joined QWP after winning the May 2013 general election as an independent candidate. If suspected and probed, he could argue that he wasn’t bound by party discipline as he didn’t contest the 2013 polls on the QWP election symbol.
It remains to be seen how the QWP is going to tackle the issue. It cannot ignore the disloyalty of its MPAs, but would have to be careful not to arrive at the wrong conclusion. It is the first time the QWP is confronting such a situation as in the past it was able to function as a closely-knit party loyal to the Sherpao family. Until the issue is sorted out, some of the QWP’s provincial legislators would continue to arouse suspicion and this won’t be good for the party’s unity.