Sindh Assembly: Walkover for PPP and MQM

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) emerged triumphant on Thursday after their nominees bagged all the seven Senate seats up for grabs in Sindh.

The PPP picked up five seats while the MQM came away with two seats. The ruling party in Sindh, PPP, put down the victory to the successful strategy devised by it with the help of the MQM.

Both the parties notched up the required votes with the help of five ‘unidentified’ opposition lawmakers and two MPAs from the National Peoples Party (NPP), another opposition group that is going to join the PPP-led government in Sindh.



Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), which had fielded its own candidate with the support of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), refused to accept the results, alleging that horse trading and vote buying had swung the election. “The PPP has broken its past record by setting a new precedent of horse-trading in the province,” a PML-F official said.

Some 163 assembly members out of 167 voted in favour of their candidates. Meanwhile, four Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPAs did not turn up for casting their votes.

Islamuddin Shaikh, Rehman Malik, Engineer Ghianchand, Saleem Mandviwalla, Abdul Latif Ansari of PPP and Khusbakhat Shuaat and Mian Atiq of MQM were declared successful candidates by the election commission.

In stark contrast, PML-F candidate Imamuddin Shaukeen managed to get only 13 votes – at least five votes shy of its strength in the house. “There were a total 20 opposition members in the house who had initially supported our sole candidate. Two members belonging to National Peoples Party led by Jatoi brothers refused publicly to vote for us following their deal with the PPP,” said opposition leader in Sindh Assembly Shaharyar Mahar, who belongs to the PML-F.

Even out of the remaining 18 MPAs, PPP bought the sympathy of our five members.

Mahar alleged that during the election two blank papers were found from the ballot boxes.

“PPP candidates, with the help of election commission officials, took away the original ballot papers, replacing the same with blank papers. Later, they went away, filled the ballot papers outside the polling station and dropped it again into the box,” he claimed. His party says it will investigate and reveal the identity of five opposition MPAs who voted for the PPP candidates.

When asked about their further line of action against the rigging and horse-trading, he said, “We will consult with the party leadership and constitutional experts to devise our future line of action.”

According to the party position, PPP has 92 members, MQM 51, PML-F 10, PML-N 8, NPP 2 and PTI 4 MPAs.

The PPP has reportedly negotiated with PML-N ministers through its two former chief ministers Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Liaquat Ali Jatoi. Before casting their votes almost all the opposition MPAs vowed to vote against the PPP.

Rahim and Jatoi while speaking to media also affirmed that they would vote against the PPP.  The same version came from other Sherazi brothers of Thatta who have three MPAs in the assembly. “We would prefer to die rather than vote for the PPP which has politically victimised us,” said MPA Eijaz Shah Sherazi.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah refuted the allegations of horse-trading in the election. “It was the successful strategy of PPP and MQM [that paid off],” he said. According to him, PML-F has only 10 members in the house while members belonging to other parties have given the votes on merit.

MQM leader Faisal Subzwari also dismissed allegations of vote-buying. “We have 51 MPAs in the house. Two candidates of our party required hardly 44 votes, so the allegations against us are baseless,” he said.

Around 11 senators are going to step down from their posts this month after completing their terms. Already, four senators belonging to the PPP and the MQM have been elected unopposed on women and technocrat seats.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2015.