‘They plot and plan, and Allah too plans’ ‘But Allah is the best of planners’

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and senator-elect Mushahid Hussain Sayed Saturday said that the adversaries were planning against the N-League but the naives didn’t know that key to decisions is in hands of Allah (Swt). Talking to the media, Mushahid aptly described the Senate poll as a mini referendum at a time when the PML-N is facing a multitude of intrigues.

He quoted a Quranic verse from Surah Al-Anfa’al to elaborate his point: “Remember how the unbelievers plotted against thee, to keep thee in bonds, or slay thee, or get thee out (of thy home). They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah.”

All machinations to fracture the under-pressure PML-N in the Senate election miserably crashed, as it emerged as the single largest party in the Upper House leaving its rivals far behind.

Being the biggest party with thirty-three plus seats, the PML-N will be in a better position, compared to its opponents, to elect its nominee as the next Senate chairman with the support of its allied parties.

Its main adversaries – the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – fell short of a comfortable number to challenge it in the election of the Senate chairman with the former’s tally hovering around twenty and the latter’s number nearly twelve.

Wild but well-orchestrated grapevine that the PML-N will crash in this election proved abject disinformation and fools’ dream.

At the federal level and in Punjab where the party was in dominant majority, it remained absolutely intact to the chagrin of conspirators.

The varying gains and losses of other parliamentary parties in the Senate election were of course important but what was most significant in this poll was the question about the unity of the PML-N especially in Punjab and the National Assembly.

The result proved that the PML-N maintained its complete hold over this provincial legislature even at this trying time and was not confronted with any defections whatsoever.

Every PML-N candidate declared “independent” by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the force of the Supreme Court decision that divested deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the party presidency was quick to announce his association with the party after his victory.

Thus, the plan that their “independence” will keep the PML-N wavering about their future affiliation with it collapsed like a house of cards. Every independent winner praised Nawaz Sharif’s leadership, rubbing salt into the wound of those bent upon throwing the ex-premier out of the political arena.

The biggest surprise, if it can so called, was the embarrassing shock that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) received for which no one else but it alone was responsible for playing games in its internal strife. Its loss turned out to be gain of the PPP, which was not without tangible considerations including arm-twisting. It reflected the appalling politics.

The PML-N easily secured e11 out of 12 seats from Punjab with one seat going to the PTI for the first time. This seat was bound to attract a close fight that it provoked. It got two seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

The PPP made a good gain from the KP by securing one seat by making an alliance with some other parliamentary groups. Another huge surprise was the defeat of PTI-backed Maulana Samiul Haq from the KP. His rout may jeopardize his alliance with the PTI because it was caused because of Imran Khan’s legislators.

In Balochistan, the National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party got their respective share while the remaining winners were “independents”.

The plan that was executed by ousting Nawab Sanaullah Zehri as chief minister to deprive the largest party in the provincial assembly - the PML-N – of its due Senate seats was largely successful.