LAHORE: The PML-N leaders have come up with a new strategy to ensure that all its members in the Punjab Assembly vote for its candidate Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan for Oct 3 by-poll on a vacant Senate seat (from Punjab).

To save itself from embarrassment it faced in the Senate and presidential elections, the PML-N leadership has divided its 159 MPAs into 10 small groups.

“Ten groups of PML-N MPAs are formed with two coordinators in each group to ensure that all of them vote for Mr Hassaan,” a PML-N MPA told Dawn on Friday. He said the party leadership did not want to lose a single vote (of its member) in this Senate by-poll and held two coordinators in each group responsible for any party violation.

PTI leader denies impression of complacency

“The coordinators have started holding meetings with its members in this regard,” he said, adding that since Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s nominee Dr Shahzad Waseem was not a strong candidate, the PML-N would try its best that he (Waseem) did not bag all its (PTI) 186 votes. “There has been grouping in the PTI and we will try to cash in on the situation,” the PML-N lawmaker said and added that the PML-N and PPP leaderships were also in contact and the former was hopeful that the six members of the latter would vote for Mr Hassaan.

He said the PML-N nominee had good relations with the PML-Q leaders as well and would contact it for its (10) votes in the Punjab Assembly.

A source in the PTI said the party appeared to be complacent and had not yet formed any strategy for the Senate by-poll. “Governor Chaudhry Sarwar who was quite active in the Senate and presidential polls is conspicuous by his absence in this by-poll campaign,” he said.

PTI’s senior leader Ijaz Chaudhry dispelled this impression, saying the party was in a comfortable position to win the Senate seat on Oct 3.

“There has been no resentment in the party over the nomination of Dr Waseem. He is a party candidate and we have the required numbers to win,” he said.

In the September presidential polls, 16 PML-N MPAs were alleged to have ‘deliberately’ wasted their ballots to keep the vote count of PML-N nominee Maulana Fazlur Rehman low to benefit PTI’s Arif Alvi. The PML-N suspected that the lawmakers in question were those who had voted for PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the election of the Punjab Assembly speaker. Mr Elahi had bagged 201 votes for the slot of speaker -- 15 more than the PTI and PML-Q strength in the house.

Interestingly, Usman Buz­dar could get 186 of the PTI and PML-Q votes to become the chief minister of Punjab, sho­wing that it was Mr Elahi who caused a real problem for the PML-N.

It is believed that the Sharifs’ party had not put up a serious effort to trace the ‘suspects’.

Chaudhry Sarwar was the only senator who was elected on the PTI ticket in March this year and he surprised many by winning a general seat from Punjab by securing the maximum number of 44 votes among the victorious candidates belonging to the PML-N. His win set the tongues wagging about a lack of fairness of the elections and the PML-N alleged that the PTI candidate had used money to secure his victory.

The PML-N later formed two committees to hold an inquiry and reportedly identified 28 of its MPAs, mostly women, who voted for the PTI and PPP candidates. The PML-N leadership at that time too chose not to initiate any action against the violators.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2018