People have mixed reaction to Senate election results

LAHORE: People gave mixed reaction to the Senate election of Sadiq Sanjrani as chairman and Mirza Muhammad Afridi as deputy chairman, both candidates of the incumbent government.

According to Aqeel Ahmed, it was the victory of democracy. PDM was involved in horse-trading but Imran Khan defeated them badly. PDM must learn a lesson from this election and cooperate with the government for the welfare of people and country. Ahmed said that Imran Khan was against the status quo and Yousaf Raza Gillani was a representative of status quo.

Ahmed said that now there was no difficulty for PTI government and their focus would be only public service delivery. PDM would not create problem during legislations, he said.However, some people termed this victory the defeat of democracy. According Mudassar Sherazi, Yousuf Raza Gillani’s defeat was the defeat of democracy. Use of spy cameras in Senate gave clear notion that Gillani’ defeat was not easy, he was of the view.

According to Sherazi, the votes which were rejected were cast in favour of Gillani and they were not counted. Sherazi termed it a biased election. He said the election results were very astonishing and unexpected. It means the country is not on the right track now. The policy makers should revisit the policies for the welfare of people, he said.

There was no a level playing field for the contesting candidates of PDM, he stated.According to him, everyone has seen feeble democratic system in Pakistan in the Senate election. He lamented that sane voices were not being heard in Pakistan. PTI had not confidence in their own senators that they would cast vote in their favour.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary General Amirul Azeem said the Senate chairman polls’ outcome pushed the already depressed nation deeper into hopelessness as they once again witnessed the power of votes defeated reducing them to mere spectators of the power brokering. He said it has once again proved that the votes of the people and their basic needs would never be given respect as long as all the political parties came out on the streets to get rid of the hybrid democracy and restore the genuine democracy.

Islami Jamhoori Ittehad President and Jamiat Ahle Hadith leader Hafiz Zubair Ahmad Zaheer said manipulation of votes and election results has made the public lost all hopes with the democratic system and voting process. “When minority votes win over majority, who will be ready to trust the electoral system,” he said. JUP Vice-President Qari Zawwar Bahadur said the country needed a drastic revolution to change the whole system, without which the masses would remain deprived of their basic rights. JUI-F spokesman Aslam Ghari said if Senate polls can’t be held transparently and fairly, how general polls could deliver genuine and fair results.