Independents to be kingmakers in Senate

ISLAMABAD: Independent candidates can play the role of king-makers for election of the Senate chairman. Eyes are set on the six independent senators-elect from Balochistan, as it is speculated if not all, five of them will join PPP.

Political parties have sprung into action to push for garnering maximum support for their would-be nominees for the post of next Senate chairman and deputy chairman. To achieve this goal, they need 53 senators. The PPP needs 22 and the PML-N 20 votes to win these offices in the Upper House of the Parliament.

It is being speculated that the Senate election was the first phase of showing magic of money and now the second phase is pocketing as much as support of senators for the coveted post of chairman of the Senate.

Incumbent Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani’s term will expire on March 11. He is the seventh chairman of the upper house of parliament while Habibullah Khan was the first, who hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Rabbani had been exceptional in terms of his performance and could win support of PML-N, if his party decided to field him again. But the PPP with 20 members is reportedly mulling bringing in Saleem Mandviwala or Sherry Rehman for the slot of chairman Senate and in this case, the rulingparty is unlikely to support its candidate.

While the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had left behind its top rival i.e. Pakistan Peoples’ Party in the Saturday’s electoral process, and has emerged as the single largest party with 33 senators in the House, and if nothing dramatic happens, it looks set to field its candidates for the slots of chairman and deputy chairman with the support of its allies. PML-N's veteran and presently Leader of the House Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq is to be the party's automatic choice for the post of chairman Senate but a surprise name also can't be ruled out.

But there are whispers that seasoned JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman may again, as previously, manage to secure the slot for Maulana Abbdul Ghafoor Haideri with five senators of his party in the House. However, three of them are retiring while two more have been elected,which brings total strength of JUI-F to four senators.

PML-N, PPP and PTI in particular, have informally held separate discussions on how to proceed after the Senate polls to gather maximum from other parties in the House.

PTI’s former secretary general and senior leader Jahangir Khan Tareen telephoned senator-elect Anwarul Haq Kakar from Balochistan and congratulated him on his election and also wished greetings to other independent senators-elect, including Ahmad Khan, Khuda Babar and Sadiq Sanjrani. A meeting between PTI representatives and these senators-elect is on the cards.

“Venue and time is being worked out for a meeting to look for possible working relationship at least,” said a senior PTI leader while talking to The News. He pointed out that a special meeting of the party’s core committee is begin summoned on Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss a strategy. PTI has now 12 members after the Senate election.

Asked will PTI be looking for talks with PPP for mutual line of action in the Senate, he said all such matters would be discussed in the upcoming meeting. “Our utmost effort is to deny PML-N from getting elected its nominee as next chairman of the Senate,” he maintained.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, currently in Karachi, will be back to Islamabad by Monday night. Meanwhile, a statement issued by PTI Central Media Department said that Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah approached the party’s vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and sought their opinion on the caretaker prime minister.

On its part, PTI central spokesperson said that the party had held initial discussions on this matter and soon under Imran, the party leadership would shortly finalise and propose names for the post of caretaker prime minister and four caretaker chief ministers.