ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s announcement on Wednesday that he does not want to accept the ruling party’s offer to field Raza Rabbani as a joint candidate for the top slot of the Senate has made the next week election for the chairman of the upper house not only more interesting but also tough for political parties.

“Thank you very much, I do not want this (to happen),” Mr Zardari said while abruptly winding up the press talk on the very first question regarding the possibility of nominating Mr Rabbani as the PPP candidate outside the official residence of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The only question put before Mr Zardari after his meeting with the Maulana was that “what is the harm in nominating Mr Rabbani [for the office of the Senate chairman] when the PML-N has already stated that it wants to see this happen and is ready to talk to the PPP if it nominates Mr Rabbani and you also want this?”

The Zardari-Maulana meeting was the last activity of the day that had earlier witnessed hectic consultations within the parties, with the allies and with other groups having representation in the parliament.

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A three-member team formed by Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif also held separate talks with the leaders of the two factions of the Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment (MQM) and the PML-Functional to seek their support for the election for the chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate.

Sources told Dawn that the PML-N Quaid during a meeting with allies had stated that the country needed a person like Mr Rabbani in the office of the Senate chairman and that his party was even ready to hold talks with the PPP. “I want to see a personality like Raza Rabbani as Senate chairman,” Mr Sharif was quoted as saying during the meeting which was attended by Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, National Party (NP) president Hasil Bizenjo, the JUI-F chief and senators belonging to these parties.

A senior PML-N leader who attended the meeting confirmed to Dawn that the ruling party and allies had agreed on the name of Mr Rabbani, but at the same time they had decided that they would field their consensus candidates if the PPP did not nominate Mr Rabbani. He claimed that the allies had extended complete support to Mr Sharif in this matter.

He said if the PPP didn’t agree on the name of Mr Rabbani, the PML-N considered Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Hasil Bizenjo as the most appropriate person for the office of the Senate chairman or the deputy chairman. But he added that no names had been finalised so far. “Mr Bizenjo also has a Rabbani-like reputation and he qualifies at least for the office of the deputy chairman,” he added.

He said the PML-N and its allies had the required number of members in the Senate, but they wanted to make decisions through consensus.

Besides Mr Bizenjo, the sources said, the names of Raja Zafarul Haq, Pervaiz Rasheed, Mushahidullah Khan and Mushahid Hussain Sayed were also being considered by the PML-N leadership. They said if Mr Rabbani was nominated again by the PPP, the ruling party along with its allies would nominate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri for the deputy chairman’s office.

At the meeting, the Maulana informed the other participants about Mr Zardari’s plan to visit him in the evening when he would put the proposal of nominating Mr Rabbani before him.

Later, a PML-N team comprising Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan separately met MQM leaders Dr Farooq Sattar and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui to solicit their support.

Mr Siddiqui while talking to reporters after the meeting suggested Farogh Naseem for the Senate chairmanship, saying he had all the qualities that should be in a good chairman.

The PML-N delegation then called on PML-F’s Pir Syed Saddaruddin Shah and told him about the deliberations that had been taken place at the meeting of the party with allies.

Sources in the PPP said the party leadership had almost finalised the names of former finance minister Saleem Mandviwala and newly-elected independent senator from Balochistan Anwarul Haq Kakar for the offices of the chairman and the deputy chairman, respectively. They said Sherry Rehman’s name had also been proposed by PPP chief Asif Zardari, but he did not get a positive response from his allies on her name. The other hot contender from the PPP is former chairman Farooq Naek.

Also, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders met in Islamabad to review the strategy for the March 12 election for the chairman and the deputy chairman of Senate.

When reached by Dawn PTI’s vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the party was still in the process of evolving its strategy while keeping an eye on the activities of other political parties.

While Mr Qureshi categorically ruled out the possibility of supporting the PML-N’s nominees for the two key Senate offices, he said the PTI had not even yet decided to support the PPP.

Refusing to make any comment on the party’s position over the possible nomination of Mr Rabbani, he said the party was closely monitoring the political developments and would make the decision at an appropriate time.

The PML-N and its allies are believed to have the support of 48 members in the new Senate whereas the PPP and the other opposition parties claimed to have nearly the same number of members in the 104-member Senate.

Meanwhile, sources in the PPP said there was a strong group within the PPP that wanted to see Mr Rabbani as the next chairman and was not happy over Mr Zardari’s new “pro-establishment stance”. They said Mr Rabbani also enjoyed the support of young chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

A senior PPP leader, when contacted, said though it seemed an ideal situation that the PPP and the PML-N develop an understanding on the names to avoid getting blackmailed from the smaller parties and independents, it seemed highly unlikely because the PPP could face its backlash, particularly in Punjab, in the coming general elections.

“We had been dubbed friendly opposition and people used to say that the country’s largest two parties had done a ‘muk muka’ (tacit understanding). And if the two parties enter into an agreement on the issue of Senate chairman and deputy chairman, the PPP may have to face its repercussions in the general elections,” he said.

Meanwhile, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar on Wednesday resigned from the office of the spokesman for Mr Zardari after the party distanced itself from his farewell speech that he had made on the floor of the Senate in which he had expressed his concerns over the interference of the judiciary and other state institutions in the parliament’s affairs.

PML-N’s Mushahidullah Khan alleged that Mr Zardari had been doing all this only to appease the establishment.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2018