The ruling PML-N is the most affected by horse-trading and is struggling to deal with revolt by its South Punjab backbenchers against the party leadership's selection of Senate candidates, it emerged here on Saturday. This was the primary reason for the decision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to call an All Parties Conference at the eleventh hour but no consensus was reached on the proposed constitutional amendment.
The party's objective was to seek a consensus that would not only bind all party's provincial assembly members to vote as per the party leader's decision but, failing that, to seek a deal with other parties to elect members for the Senate unopposed in the forthcoming elections. The PPP has opted for the latter and has made a deal with the MQM that would enable all senatorial candidates from Sindh to stand unopposed.
However, the situation in other three provinces is far from satisfactory as far as the PML-N is concerned. In the Punjab, the PML-N stronghold, with the PTI not a player, no other party has enough members to ensure the victory of a single candidate. To complicate matters for the ruling party leadership, the PML-N members from South Punjab, have voiced their anger over the nomination of Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid and Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah. They argued that the party should have nominated some members for the Senate from South Punjab, as well, rather than giving tickets to those who have already completed a term in the upper house.
The PML-N is the largest party in Punjab with 312 members, followed by 30 members of the PTI. Though the PPP's Nadeem Afzal Chan has been nominated for a seat from Punjab by the party leadership, he needed support from other parties to succeed. The PPP under its current leadership has shown a penchant for what it defines as `political pragmatism' and hectic efforts were afoot, including meetings with PML-Q, to ensure Chan's victory. In KPK, the PML-N does not have enough seats to elect any single member. However, reports indicate that negotiations are underway. The JUI-F has, however, thrown a spanner in the works by openly opposing the proposed constitutional amendment. Jan Achakzai, spokesperson for the JUI-F, told Business Recorder that selective and reactive amendment cannot be equivalent to the election reforms as this would also undermine the constitution and democratic norms. He said all members of the provincial assemblies cannot be labelled as "horse-traders". "Show of hands also means depriving MPAs of a conscience vote, or those who may opt not to vote for property tycoons and other rich barons nominated by the party bosses," he added.
The JUI-F and the PML-N both have got 17 members, while the PTI has 56 members in the KP Assembly. The ruling party has also lost the grip on its members in Balochistan Assembly as only 10 out of 22 members turned up when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Quetta recently to review law and order situation. In Balochistan Assembly, Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party has 14 seats while National Party and JUI-F have got 11 and 8 members, respectively.
Analysts maintain that the PTI was supporting the government for the constitutional amendment in good faith, while the PML-N wanted to prevent its members from horse-trading in three provinces - Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. They say the PML-N could potentially lose at least two to three seats in the Senate if some of its members in the Punjab and Balochistan chose to abstain from the vote. They also argue that the ruling party may face an embarrassing situation in the Senate elections if its members preferred to abstain from the voting or vote for another candidate.
The ruling party has been struggling for the last couple of weeks to ensure that all its members in the provincial assemblies vote for the party's nominated candidates, but analysts are of the view that such efforts may prove futile, especially after political parties failed to reach a consensus on the proposed amendment.
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