KARACHI: Red faces as Musharraf loses two Sindh votes
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Oct 6: While the re-election of President Gen Pervez Musharraf from the Sindh Assembly was a foregone conclusion, given the numerical supremacy of the treasury members and the resignations and boycott of the opposition, the Saturday vote took the PML-Q government by surprise when out of the 104 votes cast, two turned out to be in favour of Justice (Retd) Wajeehuddin Ahmed.
There were names of five hopefuls on the ballot paper for the presidency. They were Gen Pervez Musharraf, Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Wajeehuddin Ahmad, Mohammedmian Soomro and Faryal Talpur. The latter two were covering candidates of Gen Musharraf and Makhdoom Amin Faheem, respectively.
The electoral college in the Sindh Assembly comprises 168 members but as one of the seats fell vacant with the resignation of Jarrar Haider Shah of the MQM, the number came down to 167.
According to the parliamentary position in the house, the ruling coalition has 103 seats -- PML-Q 43, PML-F 14, MQM 41 and PPP-Patriots 5 -- whereas the opposition comprises PPP 56, MMA 8 and MQM–H 1.
The seven members of the MMA had resigned in protest against the acceptance of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s nomination for re-election as president on Oct 2, but there resignations were pending, for the speaker wanted to satisfy himself whether they were submitted under pressure or voluntarily. So the eight names were also on the voters’ list.
The Pakistan People’s Party, which negotiated with the government and succeeded in getting the National Reconciliation Ordinance enforced, recorded its absence despite fielding its candidate and covering candidate in the persons of Makhdoom Amin Faheem and Faryal Talpur.
The PPP MPAs, led by Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, leader of the opposition in the assembly, arrived at the assembly at around 11am in a convoy of vehicles but instead of entering the assembly stopped at the outer gate where electronic and print media representatives were waiting for the issuance of their passes for entry to the building. Only a select few were allowed in.
As soon as the PPP legislators stepped out of their vehicles, they were surrounded by media persons and Nisar Khuhro in a brief speech expressed solidarity with them and said that his party had decided to remain absent from the polling as per its stand that an assembly elected for a five-year term could not re-elect the president for the second term. Besides, the PPP had always opposed election in uniform as it was against the principles of democracy and the 1973 constitution, he added.
Mr Khuhro said the PPP had put the presidential candidate only to challenge the candidature of Gen Musharraf and their petition was pending in the Supreme Court in this regard.
In the assembly hall, the voting began at around 10.20am. Abdul Aziz Bantwa was the first to cast his vote while Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim was the 26th to cast his ballot. He was called at 10.45am. His predecessor Sardar Ali Muhammad Mehar was on the 99 number while Imtiaz Shaikh was the 100th. Sultan Khawar was the last voter, who cast his vote at around 2.10pm.
Surprise voters
Shumaila Nazar, wife of Dr Imran Farooq, also came from London. She stayed in the assembly hall for an hour and after casting her vote at around 12noon left the hall.
Mohammad Yunus Khan of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, whose party was part of the opposition, gave a surprise to journalists sitting in the gallery. He came at around 1.45pm and after casting his vote left the hall immediately.
With his participation, the number of the expected voters rose to 104 against the calculation of 103 by the treasury.
In the assembly hall, which was turned into a polling station, Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad was the presiding officer, who sat in the speaker’s chair, while Sindh Election Commissioner Qamaruzzaman, the registrar of the Sindh High Court and Secretary of the Assembly Hadi Bux Buriro were acting as polling officers. They were sitting on the bench below the speaker’s rostrum.
Provincial Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat and Advocate Noor Naz Agha, who were polling agents of Gen Pervez Musharraf and Wajeehuddin Ahmed, respectively, were seated in the chairs placed for them facing the presiding officer and the ballot box.
