From the very beginning of her term, Benazir Bhutto was aware that she had been elected in an unfriendly environment and would have to sail through rough waters. Just three weeks into the Prime Minister House, she was confronted by the election of the chairman of the Senate, scheduled for Dec 24, 12 days after the presidential vote on Dec 12.

The election to the prestigious office, which had fallen vacant when Senate chairman Ghulam Ishaq Khan had assumed the responsibility of acting president after Gen Zia’s crash, had become a point of prestige for Benazir Bhutto and the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.

Bhutto did not have enough seats in the Senate to enable her to elect a Senate chairman of her choice without support from any other party or group. While she was still looking for a perfect candidate, Senator Tariq Chaudhry, a PPP supporter at the time, despite having no support in the house decided to contest the election.

Senator Wasim Sajjad however stood a better chance as he enjoyed support of other leaders and was a popular person. He belonged to a respectable family from Jalandhar, India. His father Justice Sajjad Ahmad Jan was a jurist and had served as chief election commissioner for the 1977 elections. Wasim Sajjad was well-educated and had served as federal minister for interior in Mohammad Khan Junejo’s government. He had been elected member of the Senate in 1980 during Gen Zia’s dictatorial regime.

Wasim Sajjad’s victory in the Senate elections came as Benazir’s first defeat in the early days of her premiership

In 1988, supported by President Ghulam Ishaq, the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and other IJI component parties, Sajjad was ready to contest election for the Senate chairman.

Benazir did not want Tariq Chaudhry to contest the election because Wasim Sajjad had a better chance of winning but Chaudhary took a decision without her approval. Consequently, Wasim Sajjad bagged 53 votes while Tariq Chaudhry got 24 votes — Bhutto’s first defeat in her nascent political career.

As chairman, Wasim Sajjad played a positive role in the house, consolidating his position. He was elected four times till 1999, and with 12 years in the office he became the longest serving chairman of the Senate.

Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto was trying to tackle the issues confronting her as best as she could. She hoped that more democratic elements would come to the assemblies after the next elections so that it would be possible to scrap the Eighth Amendment.

The situation in Punjab was most challenging for Benazir. As she waited for a favourable time, rumours spread that the PM was going to introduce a new strategy that would give her government a fresh boost. Before the ruling party could confirm or reject it, Chief of Army Staff Gen Aslam Baig called on her and advised her to make a broad-based government by inducting some members of the opposition parties in order to come out of political instability. Apparently, this advice had some sinister undercurrents. Benazir Bhutto took the advice, along with additional recommendation from the COAS to invite the opposition party leaders to nominate their members, instead of picking them out by herself. This was aimed at stopping Benazir’s attempts to woo members of the opposition to her government so that she could form a multi-party government.

On the other hand, it had become quite obvious that Nawaz Sharif was persistently trying to end the PPP government through a mid-term elections and had been meeting with leaders of various parties in this regard. In response, Benazir Bhutto initiated a move to destabilise Nawaz Sharif in Punjab, where he had formed a provincial government without any external help. It was purely a numbers game and to dislodge Nawaz Sharif in Punjab was not as simple as she thought.

The result of the Senate chairman election was no surprise for Benazir Bhutto and she was more concerned by reports of other moves being contemplated by Nawaz Sharif, presumably supported by President Ishaq Khan and the COAS Gen Aslam Baig. There were rumours that President Ghulam Ishaq might ask Benazir Bhutto to seek a vote of confidence. This was the brainchild of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, once a PPP stalwart and now head of a faction supported by his allies Nawaz Sharif and Ishaq Khan.

Benazir was surrounded by a political mess that could only be dealt with shrewd political skills. She wanted to create a smooth, working atmosphere.

shaikhaziz38@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 24th, 2016