ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a court on Monday for his party’s aspirants for Senate seats, but “disappointed” them by neither making any announcement nor delivering any speech.

Some of the PML-N hopefuls when contacted by this reporter expressed annoyance over the party leadership’s decision to invite all the over 160 who had applied for the tickets instead of short-listing them for a “so-called meeting” with Mr Sharif, who is also the president of the party.

The aspirants were asked to wait for the prime minister’s arrival in a side room in the spacious Punjab House. They were told that Mr Sharif was presiding over a meeting of the party’s parliamentary board to finalise the names of candidates.

Also read: Rift in PML-N over Senate nominations from Fata

When all the candidates were asked to proceed to the main hall, they found Mr Sharif at the door receiving each of them – but only for a photograph.

The members were surprised when they found no seating arrangement in the hall. The prime minister did talk to some of the candidates individually, but did not make any speech as had been expected.

“Shouldn’t we give a chance to the youngsters this time, instead of old people?” Mr Sharif was quoted to have said at the gathering.

PML-N Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah, who is retiring in March, countered the argument by saying that in other democratic countries, senior people were sent to the upper house of parliament.

Sources said Mr Sharif left the venue when some of the members were having refreshments.

“We were expecting that the prime minister will perhaps make a speech to pacify those who will not be able to get the party ticket. But he did not bother to do so,” said an aspirant from Punjab.

“It was a good-for-nothing gathering,” said another aspirant.

A senior PML-N leader even termed the occasion an “insult” to all those who had applied for the ticket. He said that some of the people had come from far-flung parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the hope that at least they would hear some words of encouragement from the party leadership.

Interestingly, an official handout issued after the meeting quoted the prime minister as having said that the PML-N had the honour of having the maximum number of applications for the party ticket. He thanked all the applicants for reposing confidence in the party and its reform agenda.

The prime minister said all the applicants were men and women of exceptional qualities and even those who would not get the ticket should continue to work for strengthening the party and the democratic system.

A number of people present on the occasion rejected the official handout. “Maybe the prime minister had talked to the person who drafted the press release,” commented a senior PML-N member.

According to another official handout, the prime minister presided over a meeting of Central Parliamentary Board of the PML-N for formulating a strategy for the Senate elections. Ishaq Dar, Raja Zafarul Haq, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Pervaiz Rashid, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Mehtab Ahmed Abbasi, Pir Sabir Shah, Ismail Rahu, Sanaullah Zehri, Yaqoob Nasir, Dr Asif Kirmani and Nuzhat Sadiq attended the meeting.

The parliamentary board had interviewed the candidates last week.

Political analysts believe that with only a few seats and a large number of aspirants, the PML-N leadership will have to take some tough decisions while finalising the names of candidates if it wants to satisfy all the heavyweights and loyalists among the applicants.

There is a general feeling within the party ranks that a majority of those retiring may again get the ticket leaving behind only a limited number of seats for newcomers, particularly from Punjab where the PML-N nominees are almost certain to reach the Senate.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2015

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