Dealing with party deserters: PML-N says it is better off without turncoats

ISLAMABAD: Negligible desertions — less than half a dozen and those too only in the Punjab Assembly — from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) belie its past when it had suffered massive defections at least thrice.

“We are better off without turncoats,” senior PML-N leader and former Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq told The News while answering questions. “The tiny number that has left us now can’t be described as a dent in our party.”

A major example of defections from the PML-N was thrown up by the Balochistan Assembly, when on the eve of election to the half of the Senate in early 2018 its entire parliamentary party in the provincial assembly had switched loyalty and its chief minister Sanaullah Zehri resigned against the top leadership’s direction. All the defectors had got good positions in the Balochistan government formed after the rebellion. A resultant huge loss that the PML-N suffered at the time was that it failed to get even a single Senate seat from Balochistan. It would have clinched at least six Senate seats if this upheaval had not struck it.

Ayaz Sadiq stated that all what happened in Balochistan was engineered to deprive the PML-N of the Senate seats from this province. “We are well aware of the hard facts.”

Before this chaotic situation, the PML-N had sustained an enormous loss in the 2002 general elections as a large number of its electables had said goodbye to it and joined the PML-Q, which was formed by Pervez Musharraf on the force of the state apparatus. However, the PML-N stood revived in the next parliamentary polls held in 2008 when it was able to form the Punjab government and secured a good number of its nominees elected to the National Assembly.

The former speaker said that of the nine PML-N MNAs elected from Lahore, all but Malik Pervez had defected. However, none of these turncoats was ever elected in any local, provincial or national elections after that while Malik Pervez had won all the polls since then. “It’s no secret how the PML-N was defeated in the 2002 elections on the force of government machinery.”

The PML-N had also encountered en masse floor crossing of its parliamentary party in the Punjab assembly during the nineties when Manzoor Wattoo had become the chief minister. All these defectors had, however, returned to the PML-N in the subsequent general elections.

“After that episode, Manzoor Wattoo has been in the political and electoral wilderness as he won just once and lost all other elections,” Ayaz Sadiq said.

This time, it is the longest period when the PML-N has stood its ground and has remained united and unified despite facing heavy odds. More than two years have passed since the last parliamentary polls but the party continues to remain intact. Not a single member of the National Assembly from amongst 83 MPs has so far abandoned it.

There are five members of the Punjab Assembly (MPAs), who have crossed floor and have been expelled for their meetings with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to get resolved the “problems” of their constituencies. PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s new narrative did not necessitate their activities and revolt. They had been holding sessions with the chief minister long before the former prime minister’s latest assertions. Just a couple of them recently started scoffing at him on this count.

Of them, Jalil Sharqpuri, elected on the PML-N ticket from Sheikhupura, was for a while on the forefront in attacking Nawaz Sharif for his new stand while a brother of MPA Ashraf Ansari from Gujranwala has also denounced the PML-N for this reason. Three other defectors include Faisal Niazi from Khanewal and Nishat Khan Daha from Khanewal and Abu Hafs Muhammad Ghiyasuddin from Narowal.

The former speaker stated that there was so much aversion in the PML-N about such defectors that when former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, while addressing its central working committee sometime back, said that these MPAs should be issued show-cause notices, participants unanimously demanded that these lawmakers should be quickly expelled from the party.

A few days ago, a video footage released by the Punjab government showed PML-N MPA Azhar Abbas from Muzaffargarh meeting the chief minister. But the lawmaker’s son Naeem Abbas quickly denied it and said that the session took place a few months back under the “tribal traditions” and that his father was and would remain very much in the PML-N.

There is no uprising in the small PML-N parliamentary party in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), which is also intact in the prevailing scenario, when allegations of “traitors” and “using Indian lingo” have intensified against Nawaz Sharif. The former speaker said there is no problem in the PML-N in the provincial assembly.

As far as the departure of Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch and Sanaullah Zehri is concerned, it is primarily because of their “constituency politics” against Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) Akhtar Mengal. The PML-N was determined to keep the BNP-M within the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and for this reason, it refused to get Zehri seated on the stage of the Oct 26 PDM public meeting in Quetta, which proved to be the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back. In the local politics, Zehri and Baloch have strong association against Mengal.

The PDM’s public meeting in Gujranwala was held on October 16 to which Nawaz Sharif had delivered the hard-hitting speech. The Quetta rally was organised on October 26. It was after more than two weeks that Qadir Baloch took exception to the former prime minister’s address and expounded the view that he can’t withstand what Nawaz Sharif had said.

The former speaker said that since his resignation against the party line Zehri had no contact whatsoever either with Nawaz Sharif or the PML-N as he had been in Dubai since then. “Zehri was not holding any party office. Qadir Baloch argued with the party leadership that since Zehri is the chief of his tribe, he should be allowed to sit on the stage of the PDM rally. The PML-N did not accept it.”

Although there has not been open mutiny in the PML-N, its several unidentified federal lawmakers had twice clandestinely voted against its directions. Once, a set of legislators went against it when the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition parties against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani was voted upon. Some MPs of other opposition groups including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had also quietly opposed the no-trust resolution in the secret ballot. Then, a number of MPs of the PML-N and PPP had also favoured the government-sponsored law making in the joint parliamentary session relating to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and other issues like the establishment of the Pakistan Medical Commission and increase in the strength of the Islamabad High Court judges.

This time, the PML-N issued show-cause notices to senators Raheela Magsi, Kulsoom Parveen, Dilawar Khan and Shamim Afridi for going against it in the parliament. Ayaz Sadiq said that the party would take a decision in this regard.