February 25, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 23, 1423

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LAHORE, Feb 24: The PML-Q stole the show on Monday as its all candidates returned to Senate, thanks to better planning and coordination by the party bigwigs.

The PPP and the MMA were the losers as they failed to bag another seat in the upper house of parliament due to lack of an effective strategy, ignorance about election rules and indecision.

The PPP leaders were not clear till the start of polling and later counting of votes about the points system on the basis of priority list in the voting.

Until the announcement of the Election Commission about the success of PML-N’s Prof Sajid Mir, they were confident that all of their three nominees — Sajjad Bukhari, Ehsanul Haq Piracha and Sardar Latif Khosa — would win in the counting.

The MMA was puzzled over its nominee and Islami Tehrik president Allama Sajid Naqvi’s sudden withdrawal from polls late on Sunday night.

MMA parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Qazi Husain Ahmad and Liaquat Baloch tried in vain to convince the Allama not to withdraw his candidature. However, he replied that his party’s cabinet had taken the decision to avoid any embarrassment for the party in case of its chief’s defeat in the Monday polls.

It was learnt that the PML-Q had promised to provide the required number of votes for Mr Naqvi’s success. But the Q-League could ensure only five votes saying it could not do more in the absence of Chaudhry Shujaat Husain who was handling the deal with the MMA.

Chaudhry Shujaat was abroad and returned only a day before the polls on Sunday.

The MMA could not take a decision until 12 noon on Monday whether it should vote for Prof Mir as its first priority or field another candidate.

The Tehrik insisted that as the seat had been reserved for it, therefore, the MMA should support its vice-president Wazarat Husain Naqvi who had filed his papers as a covering candidate.

Wajid Husain Bukhari, the brother of an MMA MPA Ijaz Husain Bukhari, claimed that he had the support of a dozen other MPAs and sought the MMA’s backing in the polls. He also posed himself as the Tehrik’s nominee.

However, Mr Wazarat, present on the occasion, refused to accept Mr Bukhari as Islami Tehrik’s nominee. He also refused to withdraw in the latter’s favour.

Mr Bukhari secured six votes while Mr Wazarat bagged none.

It means six out of 10 MMA MPAs voted for Mr Bukhari and no-one knows that who bagged the other four votes for Prof Mir clinched four votes but the PML-N claimed that these had been polled by its MPAs when the party learnt that at least a few votes were needed by every contestant to open his account for achieving points on second and third priority basis.

Peaceful polling : Elections to 14 general seats of the Senate from the Punjab completed in a peaceful polling here on Monday. The PML-Q bagged 10 while the PPP and the PML-N secured two seats each.

Here is a brief profile of the winners.

Mr Shaukat Aziz is former finance minister and presently prime minister’s adviser on finance. He, however, has been for the first time elected to any house.

Kamil Ali Agha is former chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and is provincial information secretary of the PML-Q. His another qualification is that he is a staunch opponent of Mian Muhammad Azhar in the party.

Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi (retired) is former ISI chief and federal railways and communications minister. He, too, has been elected for the first time to any house.

Muhammad Ali Durrani is a National Alliance leader and secretary-general of the Millat Party. He also has been elected for the first time.

Naeem Husain Chattha is a former MNA and the son of former parliamentarian Muhammad Husain Chattha and Amjad Abbas is the son of a former Muzaffargarh district council chairman. Mr Tariq Azeem Khan is a former diplomat.