PML-Q, allies finish with thin majority: Parliament poll process finalized
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: With almost everything going their way, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and its allies gained a slim majority in the Senate on Thursday as the National Assembly elected 12 remaining members of the 100-seat upper house.
The last stage of a tardy electoral process marked the completion of the two-chamber parliament. The 243-seat National Assembly elected four senators from the Islamabad capital territory while 12 MNAs from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas elected eight senators from tribal agencies.
Eighty-eight senators were elected under a system of proportional representation earlier on Monday by the four provincial assemblies.
The Senate elections, which were originally scheduled for October, had been postponed for one reason or another amid opposition charges that the government wanted to gain time to manipulate its majority.
In the election for four Islamabad seats held on the basis of majority vote, three were bagged by the PML-Q and one by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.
Parliamentary sources said eight senators elected from Fata as independents included six pro-government candidates while two others supported the MMA. The religious parties’ alliance complained of government manipulation despite its cooperation with the PML-Q for the capital’s seats to ensure the victory of its only candidate there.
On paper the ruling coalition, which had won 44 seats from the provinces, including 32 of the PML-Q, remains four seats short of the majority in the upper house because only three PML-Q ticket-holders won on Thursday.
But in effect, the support of six Fata members raises the coalition strength to 53 — only a slender majority of three.
However, PML-Q parliamentary leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said the coalition’s support in the Senate would increase to 58 or 59 with support of at least four more independents elected from the provinces.
Prominent PML-Q winners from Islamabad were former Senate chairman Wasim Sajjad, who defeated Farrukh Saleem of the People’s Party Parliamentarians by 199 votes to 71 on a technocrats’ seat, and former information and media development minister Mushahid Hussain who won a general seat by 117 votes.
MMA candidate and Jamaat-i-Islami deputy Amir Prof Ghafoor Ahmed won by 114 votes in the voting for two general seats.
The only women’s seat from the capital was won by PML-Q’s Tahira Lateef by 74 votes against PPP’s Sofia Imtiaz.
The winners for Fata seats, out of a total of 32 candidates, were pro-government Engr Rashid Ahmed Khan, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, Syed Sajjad Hussain, Tahir Iqbal, Abdul Malik and Mohammad Ajmal Khan, and pro-MMA Mateen Shah and Syed Mohammad Hussain — all of them getting six votes each cast under a system of proportional representation.
MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said his alliance was dissatisfied with the polls result for Fata senators as it was expecting more of its winners.
He told reporters that the alliance would inquire into the matter and repeated the charge that three pro-MMA MNAs from Fata were kidnapped in Peshawar on Tuesday with the help of a “hidden hand” to persuade them to vote for pro-government candidates.
A controversy about the whereabouts of seven Fata MNAs has been raging since Sunday when they were invited to a dinner by MMA’s NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and later stayed on at his house.
The MMA said the seven men had stayed with the chief minister on their own accord but by PML-Q secretary-general Salim Saifullah claimed on Wednesday they were detained to force them to vote for pro-MMA candidates.
Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao on Thursday denied opposition charges that he had a role in manipulating the Fata votes.
Mr Baloch said on Wednesday three of the seven MNAs were picked up by unidentified “secret agents” on Tuesday evening after a meeting with the NWFP governor, but were later freed.
The ruling coalition wanted a Senate majority to ensure smooth passage of legislative bills in both houses of parliament and to elect its own Senate chairman, who becomes acting president in the absence of the president.
The Senate chairman will also become a member of the National Security Council, which will be headed by the president.
