LAHORE: As victory of the opposition’s candidates as Senate chairman and deputy left the ruling PML-N leaders fuming, the PPP leader and Sindh Assembly deputy speaker Syeda Shehla Raza took on Maryam Nawaz on Twitter.

“Princess Maryam on daily basis your narrative was Rok suko tou rok lou (stop us if you can). Maryam bibi lou rok lia (see, we have stopped you),” she said, adding: “Maryam bibi don’t cry. You and your father got the same medication which your father was prescribing for the last 33 years just after joining Gen Jilani.”

Referring to the PPP-PTI alliance in the Senate, the PPP leader said: “Hitler kay against USA aur Russia aik hou suktey hein tou Pakistan kay Daku-i-Azam kay khilaf PTI aur PPP aik candidate kou vote kioun nahi dey suktey.”

Soon after the victory of Sadiq Sanjrani and Saleem Mandviwalla, Maryam Nawaz termed both Asif Ali Zardari and Imran Khan “pawns”. “You did not win...you are losers. Zardari and Imran had become one after reaching its (establishment’s) darbar. People have seen your real face as you are herded like goats,” she said.

In his tweet, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that Gen Zia’s opening batsman (PML-N candidate Raja Zafarul Haq) was defeated and Balochistan won.

PTI chairman Imran Khan said victory of Sadiq Sanjrani would strengthen the federation. “We are happy for the people of Balochistan and for the federation of Pakistan.”

Mr Sanjrani called Mr Khan on phone and thanked him for his party’s support and said he would come up to the expectations of people.

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said that election of the Senate chairman from Balochistan was continuation of ‘Aghaz-i-Huqooq Balochistan’. “PPP believes in democracy and the democratic process,” he added.

PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said Mr Sanjrani’s victory could only be possible through an alliance of opposition parties. “Now time has come that all opposition parties sit together and take a decision for the betterment of the country,” he said.

PTI leaders Aleem Khan, Yasmin Rashid and Ijaz Chaudhry termed Mr Sanjrani’s success a victory of PTI and opposition.

Meanwhile, PML-N ministers Tallal Chaudhry and Marriyum Aurangzeb criticised the Zardari-Imran alliance to win the Senate chairman and deputy chairman slots.

“There is a clear division between two teams — one is democratic eleven and other is the one that dances to the tune of someone (a reference to the establishment). In the 2018 general elections, the masses will vote to elect their representatives and not the party members. That election cannot be maneuvered sitting in a drawing room,” Mr Chaudhry said during a media talk in Islamabad.

Criticising the PTI for raising a slogan of change, Mr Chaudhry said that people had witnessed what happened in the election for Senate chairman and deputy chairman. “Votes were bought in the election,” he alleged.

He said Mr Sanjrani was not elected but “recruited” as Senate chairman.

He said Mr Zardari had deviated from the PPP’s politics of principles.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2018