ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: Former Information Minister Mushahid Hussain who has been awarded a Senate ticket for one of the two general seats from Islamabad by the PML-Q is facing an unexpected challenge from within the party as Khalid Javed, the other PML-Q ticket-holder for the same seat, is said to have expressed his reluctance to withdraw his papers.

PML-Q chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has already announced that for Islamabad’s second seat, his party will support the MMA candidate, Professor Ghafoor Ahmed.

Mushahid, who was originally being considered by the party for a Senate slot from Punjab, had to be transferred to the Islamabad list when Chaudhry Shujaat was prevailed upon at the last minute by President Musharraf himself to accommodate Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf from Punjab.

Informed sources said Gen Ashraf had to wait for a long time in the outer offices as it took some time for Chaudhry Shujaat to be convinced. In fact, Gen Ashraf was the last man to be called in by the party boss for an interview on the day the PML-Q finalized its list of Senate candidates.

Chaudhry Shujaat is believed to have set his mind on getting Mushahid elected to the Senate because among other things he thinks very highly of the former information minister’s spin doctoring ability.

Also, there are not many PML-Q parliamentarians, especially among the Senate candidates of the party, who can hold their own in parliamentary debate.

With Mushahid in the Senate, the PML-Q will have one too many ex-information ministers on its side. There are already two former information ministers in the National Assembly — Nasir Chattha and Sattar Lalika. Sheikh Rashid, who had held the portfolio in the first Nawaz Sharif government, is information minister in the present government as well.

Two other former information ministers, Nisar Memon and Javed Jabbar are also contesting the Senate’s technical seats from Sindh, the former on the PML-Q ticket and the latter on behalf of the Millat Party (a member of ruling alliance).

However, there are indications that the two may not find the going smooth because of the limited number of votes available to the ruling alliance in Sindh and also because of the almost total anarchy that has gripped the non-MQM faction of the ruling alliance in the province. Therefore, the possibility of one of them not making it to the upper house cannot be ruled out.

This has made Chaudhry Shujaat redouble his efforts to get Mushahid elected. He is therefore seeking the help of his friend Tariq Aziz (former principal secretary to the president) help in his efforts to persuade Khalid Javed to withdraw in favour of Mushahid.

As it was Aziz (now secretary of the National Security Council) who in the first place had got a PML-Q Senate ticket for Khalid Javed, he is probably likely to resist Chaudhry Shujaat’s pressure, failing which he may let his friend, a moneyed man in his own right, contest as an independent.

Meanwhile, the capital is buzzing with stories of independents queering the pitch for party candidates for the Senate with their suitcases filled with money. There is no independent candidate so far from Islamabad itself, but there are four declared independents in Punjab, four in Sindh, nine in the NWFP and five in Balochistan.

Since the elections for the senate are held through secret ballot and that too by a complex system of mathematical voting, the MPAs in the four provinces and the MNAs are said to be finding it very difficult to resist the monetary temptations being held up for them by the independents.

Most of the Senate candidates, from the ruling alliances and the opposition parties as well as the independents, are said to have been cleared by intelligence agencies, with at least 70 of the 100 seats reserved for these cleared candidates. The ruling alliance itself is said to have made sure that it will win at least 50 seats, with 36 going to the MMA and 14 to the PPP(P).