ISLAMABAD: With Senate elections five weeks away, main political parties are yet to constitute their respective parliamentary boards for selection of candidates.

Background interviews with a number of office-bearers of the parties represented in the national and provincial assemblies indicate that most have not even initiated the process of in-house discussions on the Senate elections slated for March 3.

Smaller parties with little chances of winning any seats because of their low representation in provincial assemblies have, however, started contacting each other in an effort to reach an understanding on a formula to increase chances of their victory in the polls.

Read: Parties gear up for election on 11 senate seats from Sindh

The PPP, presently the single largest parliamentary group in the Senate, is the only party which has formally invited applications from the aspiring candidates. But the party has also not constituted a parliamentary board to finalise its candidates.

Despite having high stakes in the Senate polls, the ruling PML-N has also not done any homework or held an internal meeting to discuss the strategy for one of the major parliamentary events.

Past practices show that parliamentary boards of parties only have the powers to recommend and shortlist the candidates, but final decisions are taken by the heads of the parties.

Also read: Qureshi wants PTI to contest Senate poll

PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who was the country’s president when the last Senate elections were held in 2012, had approved the final names which were sent to him by the party’s parliamentary board headed by his sister Faryal Talpur.

Similarly, it was Nawaz Sharif who as president of the PML-N headed the parliamentary board and approved the names of the candidates.

When contacted, PPP’s information secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira said the party would constitute its parliamentary board and discuss a strategy after completion of the process of receiving applications from the aspiring candidates for which it had fixed Jan 30 as the last date.

Also read: Resignations of PTI Sindh MPAs accepted

He said a parliamentary board would be constituted by the PPP leadership to set criteria for the candidates and finalisation of their names.

PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate and deputy secretary general Raza Rabbani claimed that informal in-house discussions were taking place at various levels.

PML-N’s secretary general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said the party was expected to hold a meeting next week to discuss a strategy for the polls. Applications would be formally invited after the meeting, he added.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which is set to get representation in the Senate for the first time because of its majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, has also not chalked out any plan for the elections.

PTI’s media coordinator Chau­dhry Rizwan told Dawn that the party’s core committee was expected to meet to discuss the Senate polls after the return of PTI Vice Chairman Shah Meh­mood Qureshi from Saudi Arabia on Jan 29.

When contacted, Awami National Party Vice President Haji Mohammad Adeel was found less enthusiastic about the election, saying that with only five MPAs in the KP Assembly the party had “very little chance” to get a seat in the upper house of parliament. He, however, said the party’s provincial chapter was engaged with other smaller parties in the assembly to make an adjustment with them to increase the chances of getting seats.

PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that since the party had the chances of winning seats only from Balochistan, its provincial chapter had been asked to approach other parties for a seat adjustment.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Wasay Jalil said his party had completed its homework and was waiting for the formal start of the election process by the Election Commission. He said the party’s Rabita Committee would finalise the names of the candidates.

A Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader said that party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had the discretionary powers to nominate candidates. However, he said, the party had started internal discussions on the Senate elections.

Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari and his deputy Sabir Ali Baloch are among the 52 senators who will retire on March 11 after completing their six-year term in the 104-member house. Among the 52 senators retiring eight are from the ruling PML-N, six from the ANP, three each from the MQM and JUI-F, two from the Balochistan National Party-A and one each from the PML-Q, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and National Party.

Under the Constitution, half of the senators retire after every three years.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2015

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