ISLAMABAD: Political reconciliation appeared to be the order of the day in the federal capital, on Tuesday.

Over a lunch meeting with the heads of major political parties, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif endorsed Monday night’s nomination by opposition parties of PPP leader Raza Rabbani as the new chairman of the Senate. Later in the evening, PPP Co-chairperson Asif Zardari hosted the PM at his residence for a quick meeting where he formally announced his support for Mr Rabbani’s candidature.

But given the prime minister’s stiff face and given the lack of his usual wit, one of the participants of a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office early on Tuesday afternoon told Dawn that it was evident that the PML-N chief had made the announcement with a heavy heart.

Also read: Nawaz meets Zardari after endorsing Raza Rabbani for Senate chief

Until last night, the ruling party continued efforts to muster support for the election to the two top positions in the Senate, which included a rare phone call between Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and MQM chief Altaf Hussain. However, after Monday night’s show of power by the PPP and its allies, PML-N was put on the back foot.

The two key factors which, according to one of the PM’s close aides, figured in the decision to support the PPP candidate for Senate chairmanship were the PTI and future legislation.

Another ruling party source, privy to in-house brainstorming, said that with the unpredictable PTI chief Imran Khan – who went as far as declaring 2015 as an election year on Tuesday – waiting in the wings, “the PML-N couldn’t afford a fractured parliament”.

The argument was also impressed upon the prime minister by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan, who called on him separately in the day.

Looking to the future, PM accepts Rabbani’s nomination

Their stance did carry weight, as it was the united stand taken by parliamentary parties against the PTI-PAT protests last year that rescued the government. “What if PTI launches another protest movement tomorrow? The PM has made a good move by endorsing Mr Rabbani’s candidature,” the source said.

Secondly, a responsive Senate is a must for the PML-N for smooth legislation until March 2018, when the next general elections will only be a few months away. A fierce contest between the PPP and PML-N for the Senate chairmanship would certainly have caused a few bruises, creating enough distrust between Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari that the government would have found it difficult to handle in the coming days, a ruling party lawmaker commented when asked to explain his leadership’s decision.

The non-controversial background of Mr Rabbani, who is known for his extraordinary credentials as a true democrat, also contributed towards his acceptance by the PML-N.

“Mr Rabbani has, on various occasions, even criticised his own party’s government. Therefore, many within the ruling party spoke for him as being a good candidate,” said the PML-N source.

Powerful Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, who has shared a good rapport with Mr Rabbani since their days with the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, is said to have played a particularly key role in the eventual support for him, he said.

And above all, as a PML-Q senator quipped after the PPP had roped in MQM, ANP and other smaller parties in support of their party’s candidate, the PML-N was left with little choice but to opt for a reconciliatory position.

The PML-N lawmaker also accepted that numbers didn’t favour the government, but, “that doesn’t mean we lacked the wherewithal to put up a decent fight”.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Election Commission notified the candidature of all 43 senators elected on March 5, except for the four senators who were earlier elected unopposed from Karachi, Ms Raheela Magsi — whose candidature is currently the subject of a case before the Islamabad High Court — and the four Fata senators, who have yet to be elected.

Published in Dawn March 11th , 2015

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