Senate polls: PPP, JUI-F balk at seat adjustment with PML-N

Leadership of both parties convey their decisions to govt negotiators

ISLAMABAD:

After refusing to endorse the 22nd constitutional amendment bill proposed by the government to curb political horse-trading, the PPP and JUI-F have also turned down any seats-adjustment formula with the ruling PML-N for the upcoming Senate elections.

Leaderships of the two parties have conveyed their decision to the government teams tasked with working out an agreement, sources told The Express Tribune. According to them, PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has also formally kicked off a campaign to bag both more seats in the upper house and the Senate chairman’s slot.

Although it failed to evolve a consensus on the 22nd amendment, Friday’s meeting of the leaders of all parliamentary parties did produce a proposal for a seats-adjustment mechanism to make sure all parties get shares in the Senate proportionate to their strengths in provincial legislatures. But this outcome, too, seems to have not worked as anticipated.

Sources said the main opposition party has its sights on getting five Senate seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) – where it has only five legislators – and one Senate seat from Balochistan – where it has no representation at all. The PPP has also fielded a candidate for one Senate seat from Punjab, despite having only eight seats in the provincial assembly. As many as 42 votes are required to elect a senator from Punjab, 19 votes are needed to elect a senator from K-P and 10 votes are required for electing a senator from Balochistan.

According to sources, on Saturday the PPP leadership told Finance Minister Ishaq Dar – who had been tasked with negotiating a seats-adjustment formula with the party – that it was unwilling to discourage its candidate from contesting a Senate seat from Punjab.

On the other hand, the JUI-F, too, politely refused to work out any seats-adjustment formula with the PML-N in K-P and said it would ally itself with the ruling party in Balochistan only, where it needs PML-N’s votes to get Senator Ghafoor Haideri reelected. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman conveyed this during his talks with federal ministers Pervaiz Rashid and Khawaja Saad Rafique, sources said. Talking to the media after the meeting, Rashid said Fazl’s reservations would be conveyed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and that the PML-N was ‘duty-bound’ to allay them.



He said the prime minister was ‘highly serious’ in resolving issues regarding cooperation and consultation with Fazl and added that the JUI-F chief’s “services to strengthen democracy are commendable and widely acknowledged by all democratic forces.”

Meanwhile, sources said that in a desperate bid to ensure the victory of its lone candidate for the Senate from K-P, Salahuddin Tirmizi, the PML-N has served a show cause notice to MPA Wajeehuz Zaman after he announced he would vote for another candidate.

According to an official communiqué floated within the party, PML-N Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra served the show cause notice to Zaman over his “blatant defiance against the party line and gross violation of party discipline.”

Jhagra asked the MPA to explain why he should not be expelled from the party and sought his reply within two days. In a recent interview, Zaman said he would not vote for any PML-N candidate in the Senate elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2015.