Punjab Senate results set alarm bells ringing in PML-N camp

LAHORE: The Senate election results at the Punjab Assembly have set alarm bells ringing in the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) camp, as about 40 of the party MPAs did not cast their votes in accordance with the leadership instructions.

With the bar set at a little over 46 votes needed for a Senate candidate to win, the PML-N camp had made groups of 48 MPAs for each of its top six candidates, namely Rana Maqbool, Asif Kirmani, Haroon Khan, Dr Mussadiq Malik, Khalid Shaheen Butt and Zubair Gul.

Rana Mahmoodul Hassan was left with 22 first priority votes. The groups were headed by the likes of Rana Sanaullah, Rana Mashhood, and others. These 48 MPAs were to cast their first priority vote to the candidate designated by the group leader while their second priority vote was to go to Rana Mahmoodul Hassan. However, despite around 98 per cent attendance of the six groups of 48 each, not a single one turned out to have polled all their votes in favour of the candidate they were supposed to.

The group designated to vote for Rana Maqbool was headed by Rana Sanaullah and had MPAs from Faisalabad, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh. However, the group only managed 43 out of 48 votes. That means that five MPAs belonging to these areas did not follow the party line. Asif Kirmani designated group gave him 42 votes, which means six PML-N MPAs from Sialkot district and Narowal did not follow the party instructions. Dr Mussadiq Malik group of MPAs consisted of mainly from Rawalpindi, which too fell short by six votes.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, who had Lahore and Gujranawala voting for him was deceived by six MPAs. Zubair Gul, who was banking on his loyal services to the party in England, was hit the worse as 10 MPAs from Multan and DG Khan knocked him out of the Senate polls. Only 38, out of 48 PML-N MPAs, voted for him. While 07 PML-N MPAs didn’t find the party’s choice Khalid Shaheen Butt worthy of their vote. However, Rana Mahmoodul Hassan, who was the underdog somehow attracted the first priority vote of 40 MPAs against the 22 designated to him. This meant that out of those missing 40 votes, 18 went to Rana Mahmoodul Hassan. That in itself raises questions regarding the party MPAs level of agreement with the priority choice of their leadership.

Various senior leaders in the PML-N, however, believe that the phenomenon is not an expression of dissent with the party choice. They identify multiple factors for what might have happened, the major among which are the role of massive cash amounts, starting from Rs5.5 million, and the cast-connection. The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) candidate getting 18 of the PML-N’s first priority vote and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate bagging 10 of PML-N MPAs’ support must be a worrisome result for the ruling party in Punjab, ahead of the general elections in July this year. Sources said the party leadership has certain leads on who did not follow the party policy. These, the sources added, include two women MPAs from Rawalpindi, one from Okara and one minority female MPA.

The PML-N chief polling agent for the Senate elections and Minister Human Rights and Minority Affairs Khalil Tahir Sandhu, while commenting on the issue, said there is no doubt that the election has set alarm bells ringing in the party. However, he said in a way it helped the party get a clearer picture before going into the general elections.

Senior party leader and MPA Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said the party is preparing for the party president elections for now. However, once the process is over, investigation would be carried out into the issue and the problem would be fixed, as maintaining discipline in the party ranks was one of top priorities of the leadership.