ISLAMABAD, Feb 24: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q and its allies appeared headed for a majority in the Senate as the four provincial assemblies elected 80 members of the 100-seat Senate on Monday.
Bagging 44 seats so far, the ruling coalition is likely to get the vital majority with the support of at least four independents elected on Monday and the election for 12 more seats fixed for Thursday.
While affiliation of some smaller groups in Balochistan was not immediately clear, the opposition parties together have won about 40 seats, including 21 of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and 11 of the People’s Party Parliamentarians.
The PML-Q and its partners at the centre want at least a simple majority in the Senate to ensure a smooth sailing in both houses of parliament and to have their own chairman of the upper house who becomes acting president in the absence of the president.
A total of 125 candidates were in the field for 80 seats that were on stake on Monday after 21 had retired by the Sunday noon deadline.
Prominent winners included adviser on finance Shaukat Aziz, former Sindh governor Mohammedmian Soomro, MMA chief Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, PPP acting secretary-general Mian Raza Rabbani, former NWFP chief minister Sardar Mehtab Khan and ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan.
The results were by and large predictable except in the NWFP where three independents appeared to be responsible for the PPP’s rout in the contest for general seats.
The opposition parties repeated their charges of manipulation by the government and vote-buying by wealthy candidates. Even NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani complained of “outside interference” while the voting was still in progress at the provincial assembly building in Peshawar.
He would not specify the interferers and told reporters: “Everybody knows who is interfering.”
There was worry for some time about the whereabouts of seven National Assembly members from Fata who were first reported missing after being invited to a dinner by Mr Durrani on Sunday but were later found to be living with the chief minister.
All these seven Fata MNAs out of a total of 12 had won in the Oct 10 election with MMA’s election symbol of book, but the Election Commission recognised them as independents because political parties are not yet allowed to operate in the federally administered tribal areas.
PUNJAB: In the Punjab, the PML-Q and allies managed victories for all their 10 candidates through a well-planned campaign while the PPP and the PML-N, which ran their campaign poorly, secured two seats.
PML-Q parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi remained present at the provincial assembly throughout the day to monitor the election process that remained peaceful and continued without a break.
A provincial minister had been deputed for each PML-Q nominee with a list of 25 MPAs to ensure the casting of all votes.
To further brightening the chances of success of all the candidates on points basis, priority table in each list had been changed.
MMA’s indecision until noon on Monday about selecting its candidate after the retirement of its vice-president Allama Sajid Hussain Naqvi and later a split in their voters dampened hopes of the opposition parties’ to secure another Senate seat.
Those who won on PML-Q ticket were; Shaukat Aziz, former railway minister Javed Ashraf, Tariq Azeem Khan, Kamil Ali Agha, Syed Dilawar Abbas, Mohammad Ali Durrani, Naeem Husain Chattha, Mohammad Amjad Abbas, Asif Akhtar Hashmi and Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry.
PPP’s Sajjad Husain Bukhari and Sardar Latif Khan Khosa and PML-N’s Ishaq Dar and Prof Sajid Mir also won, with Mr Dar bagging the highest number of votes (36).
SINDH: In Sindh, all the 14 candidates fielded by the PML-Q-led ruling coalition were elected, while the PPP-led joint opposition took eight seats, with two of its stalwarts losing on women’s and technocrat/ulema seats.
All the 168 assembly members cast their votes at the assembly committee room.
Mohammad Amin Dadabhai, who was a candidate of the ruling alliance, secured the highest number of votes (13), followed by Justice (retd) Abdul Razzaq Thaim (12).
Those elected on General seats are Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi, Mian Raza Rabbani, Abdullah, Abdul Latif Ansari, and Mohammad Enver Baig of the PPP, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Mohammedmian Soomro of the PML-Q, Babar Ghori, Mohammad Abbas Komaili and Ahmed Ali of the MQM, Shah Ahmed Noorani of the MMA, and Justice Abdur Razzaq Tahim of the PML-F.
Those elected on women seats are Abida Saif and Nighat Mirza of the MQM, Rukhsana Zuberi of the PPP and Bibi Yasmeen Shah of the PML-Q.
Those won on seats reserved for technocrats are Nisar Ahmed Memon and Mrs Tanvir Khalid of PML-Q, Farooq Hamid Naek of PPP and
Prof Mohammad Saeed Siddiqi of MQM.
NWFP: In the Frontier province, the MMA bagged seven of the 14 general seats.
One seat each was won by PML-Q, PPP-Sherpao, PML-N and Awami National Party (ANP).
The victory of independents — Gulzar Ahmad, his son Waqar Ahmad and Azam Khan Swati — without having support from any party came amid complaints of vote-buying.
MMA’s elected senators are Prof Khursheed Ahmad, Murad Ali Shah, Hidayat Khan, Maulana Gul Naseeb, Maulana Rahat Hussain, Sahibzada Khalid Jan and Prof Ibrahim.
Others were Shujaul Mulk of PPP-S, Commander Khalilur Rehman of PML-Q, Asfandyar Wali Khan of ANP and former chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan.
Those elected on women seats included PPP’s Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, PML-Q’s Fauzia Fakhruzzaman and MMA’s Dr Kausar Firdous and Mumtaz Bibi.
Those elected on technocrat/ Ulema seats included PPP’s Farhatullah Babar, ANP’s Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, MMA’s Maulana Samiul Haq and Mohammad Saeed.
The independents appeared to be responsible for the rout of the People’s Party Parliamentarians whose candidate Sardar Ali Khan received only a single first priority vote out of 10 party votes, which showed that the remaining nine party MPAs did not vote for him.
Similarly, out of 10 ANP votes, seven first priority votes went to Asfandyar Wali Khan while the remaining three voted for other candidates.
The three independent candidates won a maximum number of first priority votes and were the first to cross the point-limit set for winning.
BALOCHISTAN: In Balochistan, the PML-Q and its ally Grand National Alliance won 11 out of the provinces’s 22 seats, with its provincial coalition partner MMA bagging six seats and opposition Pashtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party two.
The Balochistan National Party (BNP), Balochistan National Movement (BNM) and Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) won one seat each.
The PPP, which has two seats in the Balochistan Assembly, failed to win any Senate seat from the province. Three votes were polled in favour of PPP candidate Saifullah Khan Piracha but he was eliminated in the final counting being last in the list of candidates and his votes were transferred to BNP’s Sanaullah Baloch.
The PML-Q won three of the four seats reserved for women, the fourth seat went to the GNA, while the MMA, the PMAP and some other parties had not put up any candidate for women’s seats.
However, the MMA won two of the four seats reserved for technocrats and two other going to the PML-Q and the JWP.
Those elected from Balochistan on general seats are PML-Q’s Mir Wali Mohammad Badini, Mohammad Sarwar Khan Kakar, Mir Mohammad Naseer Mengal, Ayaz Khan Mandokhel and Mohammad Akram, MMA’s Dr Azizullah Satakzai, Dr Mohammad Ismail Buledi, Rahmatullah Kakar and Haji Liaquat Ali Bangulzai, PKMP’s Nawab Mohammad Ayaz Khan Jogezai and Raza Mohammad Raza, BNP Awami’s Mouhim Khan Baloch and BNP’s Sanaullah Baloch.
Those who won on women’s seats are PML-Q’s Roshan Khurshid Bharucha, Kalsoom Perveen and Agha Pari Gul, and National Alliance’s Shereen Noor.
Those elected on Ulema/technocrats seats are MMA’s Kamran Murtaza and Maulvi Agha Mohammad, PML-Q’s Saeed Ahmed Hashmi and JWP’s Amanullah Kanrani.
Twelve senators will be elected on Thursday — four from the federal capital territory of Islamabad by the whole 342-seat National Assembly and eight from Fata by 12 National Assembly members from the tribal agencies of that region.
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