Aitzaz’s five extra votes leave opposition in Sindh PA red-faced

Published September 5, 2018
PTI supporters in the Bath Island area dance a jig on Tuesday to celebrate Arif Alvi’s victory in the presidential election.—White Star
PTI supporters in the Bath Island area dance a jig on Tuesday to celebrate Arif Alvi’s victory in the presidential election.—White Star

KARACHI: Based on its numerical strength in the house, Pakistan Peoples Party’s presidential candidate Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan easily prevailed over his rival Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Arif Alvi on Tuesday, but the extra five votes the eminent lawyer got not only surprised the opposition but his own party as well.

Like other legislatures, in Sindh the voting for the country’s president was held through a secret ballot in which Mr Ahsan secured 100 out of total 158 votes polled, defeating Mr Alvi who got 56 votes and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, respectively.

The result surprised many in the house and those sitting in the media gallery, as other galleries were empty due to security reasons.

It is next to impossible to know the identity of those who went against their party’s candidate.

PTI’s Arif Alvi loses presidential poll in Sindh

The official count of the PPP lawmakers is 97 of which two lawmakers — Syed Murad Ali Shah (senior) and Nadir Magsi — did not turn up as they were said to be abroad.

The PTI has 28 members in the house followed by its allies Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (20) and the Grand Democratic Alliance (14). All of them were present in the house; thus, Dr Alvi should have bagged at least 62 votes, but his tally weighed six votes less.

One vote was rejected and it too was cast in favour of the PPP candidate, according to sources.

Polling continues for six hours

Chaired by Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh and assisted by the provincial Election Commissioner Yousuf Khattak and other officials, the one-day special session continued for six hours to see all the lawmakers cast their votes.

The polling was scheduled to begin at 10am; however, the first vote was cast at around 10.30am by PPP’s Abdul Aziz Junejo.

Lawmakers were called by the polling officials by alphabetical order and it took a bit more than two hours when 155 members present in the house marked their ballots in two polling booths on either side of the aisle and slid them into the ballot box put near the chair.

Since it was not a routine session of the assembly, most members who cast their votes preferred to stroll out in the lobby.

Outside the assembly hall, in and around the building, security cover was tighter than normal and apart from reporters of the print and electronic media no one was allowed to enter the building barring the state-run PTV personnel.

Speaker Siraj Durrani was sitting next to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah while the rest of the members — irrespective of their party affiliation — were sitting on the benches of their choice as the house is yet to be divided into the treasury and opposition benches.

Two jailed lawmakers — PPP’s Sharjeel Memon and MQM-P’s Jawed Hanif — were brought by the prison staff after issuance of their production orders.

TLP abstains from voting

Three members of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, including a woman, opted to abstain from the proceedings. They were present in the house and chose not to respond when their names were called to cast their votes.

Though PTI’s Haleem Adil Shaikh, who was also polling agent for Dr Arif Alvi, was seen trying to convince TLP member Mohammad Qasim to vote, plausibly, for his candidate, Mr Shaikh had to return to his seat smiling when the latter did not budge.

Abdul Rasheed, the only member of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in the house, was the polling agent for Maulana Fazlur Rehman; Nasir Shah represented Mr Ahsan.

Some 155 votes were cast till 12.45pm. However, MQM-P’s Khwaja Izharul Hasan showed up at 1.30pm while Arif Jatoi of the GDA and PPP’s Safdar Sarki took another 15 minutes to grab their ballots.

Mr Khattak, the provincial election commissioner, repeatedly asked those who had not yet got their ballots to cast their votes.

He did the same before unsealing the ballot box and then on direction of the chair the box was opened before the polling agents.

The wait was not long in compiling the final result. However, it took another few minutes when CM Shah and some other members were seen arguing with the election staff.

Fazl gets one vote

Thereafter Mr Khattak announced the result in which PPP’s candidate bagged 100 votes; PTI’s candidate secured 56 and Maulana Fazl could get a single vote — rationally by the only MMA member in the house. The remaining one vote was rejected because of erroneous marking.

While announcing the result, the election commissioner said out of total 168 members, there were 163 members in the Sindh Assembly. Of them, two female members belonging to the PTI and the MQM-P, respectively, had not taken oath; Imran Ismail resigned from his Karachi seat after becoming governor and PPP’s Fazal Jilani has opted for the National Assembly. Besides, election on PS-87 (Malir-I) was postponed on July 25 due to death of a candidate.

He announced that Mr Ahsan got 100 votes; Mr Alvi secured 56 and Maulana Fazl bagged a single vote.

Mr Khattak said like other provincial assemblies Sindh’s too had a total of 65 votes in the presidential elections. He said conversion of votes bagged by candidates from Sindh would be made by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

However, according to formula he suggested, Mr Ahsan bagged 39 votes, Dr Alvi 22 votes, while the single vote cast for Maulana Fazl would not count.

PPP rejects ‘horse-trading’ charge

Bemused witnesses in the media gallery were keen to know about the six mystery votes. The body language of the PTI and allies showed the result was upsetting for them.

Speaking to the media after announcement of the result, provincial minister Saeed Ghani said: “Aitzaz Ahsan commands respect in his party and elsewhere and we were already expecting that he would certainly attract people belonging to other parties as well and get more votes than the calculations.”

He brushed aside the allegation that his party resorted to ‘horse-trading’, saying: “Such allegations could have some logic had such votes [been] crucial to change the game. We all know that Dr Alvi is most probably winning this election, then why [would] anyone go for such manipulations?”

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2018

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