ISLAMABAD: As Senate elections draw close, top leaders in the ruling party are worried that disgruntled members of their party may yet prove to be their undoing.

Riled up by what many felt was an unfair distribution of tickets, many unsuccessful candidates are said to have refused to campaign for their party colleagues, causing worries that the party may not win the expected number of seats in the upper house of parliament.

Also read: Sharif ‘disappoints’ aspirants of PML-N ticket for Senate polls

In background discussions, party sources privy to the brewing frustration said that in the current scenario, especially in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the party would be lucky if it could get all its candidates into the Senate.

“Discrimination” in the selection process and the sidelining of several party heavyweights has caused widespread resentment among the PML-N’s rank and file, insiders told Dawn.

“Of the 172 applicants for Senate tickets, a parliamentary board of the party proposed only 35 to 40 names to the leadership for final selection. To the shock of many board members, however, the party leadership awarded tickets to those who didn’t make the list,” a participant of the board meetings told Dawn.

For instance, Chaudhry Tanveer, the PML-N’s candidate on a general seat from Punjab, had not applied for the ticket, but was awarded one anyway, said a party source on condition of anonymity.

Many heavyweights ignored for Senate tickets staying away from campaign; other parties trying to cash in

There was also much hue and cry over the selection of Dr Asif Kirmani and relatively-unknown MPA Kiran Dar, forcing both to withdraw their nominations.

Expecting a hostile response from within the party, the PML-N leadership is in talks with the PPP to ensure that its candidates from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are elected without much resistance. Although with just 8 party MPAs in Punjab, Nadeem Afzal Chan of the PPP stands no chance of winning a Senate seat in the province. However, the PML-N leadership still wants PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari to withdraw his candidature so annoyed lawmakers couldn’t vote for him on March 5. This, a party source said, was why Khawaja Saad Rafique met Mr Zardari last Friday and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a one-to-one meeting with him in Karachi on Monday.

In addition, party lawmakers from South Punjab are quite unhappy at being ignored and the PPP knows this too well. According to sources close to Mr Zardari, former Punjab governor and PPP leader Ahmad Mehboob has been activated and is making contact with annoyed PML-N lawmakers from South Punjab. When Dawn spoke to Mr Chan, he predicted “a surprise” in the election results from Punjab, where the PML-N has the absolute majority necessary to win all 11 seats.

In KP, the PML-N has picked Lt Gen retired Salahuddin Tirmzi over party president and former chief minister Pir Sabir Shah and Engineer Amir Muqam, another party heavyweight. The two disgruntled leaders, a senior PML-N office-bearer told Dawn, were deliberately keeping themselves away from the campaign. “Gen Tirmzi needs the outright support of both Mr Shah and Mr Muqam or he will not be able to sail through,” said a party source from KP.

The real challenge for the PML-N will be to keep all its seats in Balochistan, where the ruling party is expected to win six seats. A senior PML-N leader told Dawn that provincial party president Sanaullah Zehri wasn’t happy with the leadership’s choice of candidates, especially the selection of former BNP-Awami Senator Kalsoom Parveen, who quit her old party in a bid to get a PML-N ticket.

In one of the meetings of the parliamentary board, Mr Zehri had warned that if tickets weren’t awarded according to his recommendations, he wouldn’t be responsible for the results of the Senate elections in Balochistan.

Published in Dawn February 18th , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play