ISLAMABAD: The PPP high command has called upon Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to use all available resources at his disposal to gear up support for the upcoming Senate elections, sources said on Sunday.
According to them, the prime minister has regularly been meeting lawmakers mainly from allied parties who have not been on good terms with the government over the past few months.
The main focus of the recent meetings was on members of the National Assembly from Fata, who occasionally complain against the government over what they term step-motherly treatment meted out to them.
Twelve Fata members of the National Assembly will vote for four Senate seats from the region in March next year. There will be voting for 12 seats from each of the four provinces and two from the federal capital.
In all 54 new members will be elected to the Senate.
Moreover, the sources said, attention will also be paid to lawmakers who had won elections as independent candidates.
In addition to seeking support of coalition partners, the PPP high command has categorically asked the prime minister to also remain in touch with their parliamentary leaders and to meet their lawmakers on a regular basis and address their concerns on a priority basis.
There will be re-election for 50 general seats and those for technocrat, ulema and women. Four new seats have been created in the 18th amendment for minorities — one from each province—taking the total number of Senate members to 104.
Given the current state of national politics in which the PPP is in coalition with the MQM, PML-Q and the ANP, the party is certain to take its current tally of 27 Senate seats to about 50.
The PML-N, the main opposition party in the centre, is naturally worried about this prospect.
The sources said that frequency of prime minister’s meetings with legislators would increase in coming days because staff of the PM secretariat had been advised to immediately set up a meeting whenever there was any such request from MNAs belonging to coalition partners.
After the recent hiccup between the PPP and its new ally PML-Q, as the latter’s lawmakers complained of not being treated well by the prime minister secretariat, clear instructions were given by the presidency to the prime minister that more attention should be paid to coalition partners.
The president is reported to have agreed to immediately release Rs17 billion as development funds for PML-Q lawmakers, an amount that was promised when the two parties had decided to join hands in May this year.
Now, it has to be seen how the prime minister’s secretariat will deal with the increasing demands from coalition partners in coming days.
When contacted for comment, PML-N’s information secretary Senator Mushahidullah Khan said the party was aware of the government’s plan to use public money for political gains.
“This is the reason the PML-N leadership has decided to take on the government both in and outside the house,” said Mr Khan.
About a statement of the parliamentary leader of the unification block in Punjab Assembly, Dr Tahir Javed, suggesting to the PML-N government to dissolve the assembly to stop Senate elections, Senator Khan said it was his personal opinion.
But, he said, the intensity of the PML-N’s protest against the government’s corruption and mismanagement would increase in coming days because the party would not allow the rulers a walk-over in national politics.
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