Siraj’s disclosure provides PML-N ready-madeissue to hammer

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq’s candid disclosure about the election of Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has provided enough ammo to the archrivals of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) especially the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to put it on the back foot.

Since his revelation, based on his pre-Senate chief election discussion with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, the PTI is not only on the defensive but is constantly taunting Sirajul Haq, urging him to pull his party out of the KP’s ruling coalition.

Khattak has now given an interesting spin to his remarks made to Sirajul Haq during the telephonic conversation that the order to vote for a nominee from Balochistan for the Senate chairman came “from the above”, stating that when he had said this to the Jamaat chief, it meant Banigala, Islamabad farmhouse of Imran Khan.

However, what Sirajul Haq divulged was already in the knowledge of not only informed and discerning persons but people at large because a lot has been said and written on it. Pertinent questions were raised over the election of the Senate and its chairman in which the majority party, the PML-N, was deprived of the top Upper House slot after it was denied election of any senator from Balochistan following the hijacking of its entire provincial parliamentary party. The confirmed reports of money changing hands which were also validated by the PTI chairman’s action against his KP lawmakers, also emerged in this process.

What was by now in the public domain was authenticated and reinforced by Sirajul Haq’s declaration. Despite the severe attack from the PTI, he has not budged from his stand. Rather, he has done “moreover” by demanding that after the big disaster of sale and purchase of votes in the Upper House election, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should call all the senators to take affidavits from them on this question. “They should take notice of the massive corruption and political terrorism otherwise the forthcoming general elections will be an exercise in futility.”

Since the Jamaat-e-Islami chief’s claim, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has specifically referred to it more than once to take on Imran Khan. He has got a readymade issue to hammer when the parliamentary polls are around the corner and the election campaign is heating up. He will continue to mention it repeatedly in the days to come.

Sirajul Haq’s charge buttressed the PML-N supremo’s narrative that his party was robbed of its due seats in the Senate as well as the position of the Senate chairman. The PTI, which has always claimed to pursue clean, corruption-free politics based on principles and never break bread with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) come what may, is under a lot of pressure for supporting the PPP representative for the berth of the deputy chairman of the Senate.

However, it is also a hard fact that the Jamaat-e-Islami has still not walked out of the KP coalition government despite the renewed falling-out. This is not the first time that it has locked horns with the PTI. It has been loudly differing with its senior coalition partner on almost all major political issues. But they still pulled along for the full term of their coalition. Even when the tenure is about to expire, the Jamaat-e-Islami is in no mood to abandon it. In 2014 when Imran Khan had sponsored the protracted sit-in in Islamabad, Sirajul Haq and his party had consistently stayed away from it and rather opposed the rocking of the democratically elected government through any such agitation or undemocratic means. In the recent Senate election, the two parties had not teamed up but had opted for different alliances. The Jamaat-e-Islami, the PML-N and Awami National Party (ANP) joined hands to jointly contest the poll. The PTI had chosen other partners. It was because of this coalition that the Jamaat-e-Islami was able to get a senator elected. On the other hand, the PTI lost at least two seats, which has forced Imran Khan to expel some twenty lawmakers of his party on the charge of minting money in exchange for their votes.