Adjustments not to benefit any party : Election diary
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD: Seat-adjustment accords between the PPP and the PML-N are not going to be of any benefit to either of them, sources in both parties say.
A senior Leaguer said the seat adjustment came too late for voters committed to a candidate to change their mind.
PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is confident of ‘surprising’ the rivals in Punjab, especially in Lahore, and in Balochistan, without any seat-adjustment deal with any party.
He said the party would make adjustments only with like-minded coalition parties or the JUI-F.
He told Dawn that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s presence would not affect the election results because Leaguers were not happy over what he called his subservience to PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
The PML-Q chief described claims of overwhelming electoral superiority as bogus estimates.
Although the PML-Q chief confirmed that the party had made seat adjustments with JUI-F in Gujranwala and Attock, the JUI-F chief interestingly rejected the claims.
Talking to Dawn from Dera Ismail Khan, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that an alliance with the PML-Q would reduce the party’s vote bank and affect its popularity.
When his attention was drawn to withdrawal of Qazi Hamiduddin from NA-96 in Gujranwala, the Maulana questioned the authenticity of the report and termed it baseless.
He said that not only Qazi Hamid was still in the contest, no candidate of the party had withdrawn in favour of anyone in Attock.
So far, the PML-N and the PPP have reached an accord on a few seats in Karachi and reports indicated that the parties were negotiating on the two ‘hot seats’ in Rawalpindi where Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi are contesting against former minister Ghulam Sardar Khan and Sheikh Rashid respectively.
PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq told Dawn that no decision had so far been taken for large-scale seat adjustments and there was a possibility that the two parties would reach an understanding on some seats in the country.
Maulana Fazl has kept open the option of seat adjustments with all parties, describing it as local arrangements.
A source claimed that there were serious differences over Makhdoom Javed Hashmi contesting from Multan city and it is learnt that some people were also not happy about his contesting for a Lahore seat.
Such differences, he said, were not easily resolved and there was no use in seat adjustments because workers of both parties were committed to their own candidates and were not willing to vote for someone else.
He said PPP’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim was interested in seat adjustment so that PML-N’s strong candidate and Sindh secretary-general Makhdoom Nawaz Shah could withdraw in his favour. However, he said, his rival had made adjustments with PML-F, offering support to the latter on provincial assembly seats.
