As Election Commission of Pakistan prepares to announce the schedule for the Senate election, it appears many of the advisors and special assistants to Prime Minister Imran Khan may end up not getting party’s nod for the Senate ticket.
Source close to the party’s parliamentary board headed by the prime minister have indicated that only Dr Hafeez Sheikh, Federal Minister for Finance, and Dr Sania Nishtar, SAPM on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, are on the list of confirmed ticket holders from Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insasf.
Sources said Prime Minister Imran Khan after much consultation with his close political aides seems convinced that accommodating too many advisors and SAPMs on the party’s ticket won’t give him any advantage when it comes to managing the electoral politics, since the advisors and SAMPs are already enjoying perks and privileges of government and further accommodating them is not required.
Dr Hafeez Sheikh was sworn in as federal minister a couple of months back, after changing his portfolio from advisor to the PM. He can only perform his role as the federal minister for six months without being a member of an elected house. Hence he has to be elected as a senator.
The ruling party faces challenges in ensuring that its members vote for the party candidates in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Many of the advisors and SAPMs, including Babar Awan, Barrister Shahzad Akbar and Dr Shahbaz Gill, want to contest for a Senate seat from Punjab. But the challenge in Punjab is that many groups of MPAs want to push their own nominees. The three people mentioned above do not carry any political clout with the MPAs from Punjab and are entirely dependent on the party’s support. The PTI’s has a razor-thin majority in Punjab which is dependent on PML-Q and some independents. Any mishandling can result into some MPAs voting for the opposition and PTI losing a seat or two.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, besides accommodating the political blocks within the party, one challenge is to check the practices of the past where votes were bought and sold. The PTI itself was a victim in 2018 when many seats were won by opposition parties in KP despite PTI being in majority. As many as 20 PTI MPAS were suspected to have voted against the party candidates.
From Punjab, one candidate who is confirmed to pick up the ticket is party’s Chief Organizer Saifullah Khan Niazi. He not only wants a ticket but also is an aspirant for the office of the Senate chairman. Babar Awan, however, is still very positive that he will get a Senate ticket from Punjab ahead of others like Akbar and Gill. There is a tie between Dr Zarqa Suharwardi and Neelofar Bakhtiar for the women seat from Punjab. Dr Zarqa Suharwardi is from the original worker’s base of PTI and has many supporters in the party. Neelofar Bakhtiar, however, is an old hand at parliamentary politics and has connection with the ‘right quarters’.
Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party, which is likely to be the second largest party in the Senate, has almost decided to accommodate party’s Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira by giving him a ticket from Sindh. Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani may also be given a ticket from Sindh.
The PML-N, however, has offered to the PPP to announce him a joint candidate from Punjab. The PPP has only seven MPAs in Punjab though, but these could be crucial in the backdrop of PML-N expelling six MPAs from the party when they criticized former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s policy of attacking army. It is also understood that PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari is approaching Baluchistan Awami Party (BAP) and wants to leverage his relationship with Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani. Zardari may have helped Sanjrani not once but twice. First for election as the chairman and then at the last minute saving him from a no-confidence motion that on paper Sanjrani was sure to lose. But BAP also has many influences and considerations and is a coalition partner of PTI both at the federal level and in Baluchistan. The BAP will be the fourth largest party in the Senate. If Sanjrani plays his cards well, he can get elected as chairman Senate once again. Shibli Faraz is also confirmed to get senate ticket.
