The top leadership of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is under criticism from within the party over award of party ticket for Senate elections to personal loyalists. The list of 24 candidates, which the party fielded for the upcoming Senate elections, contain names of a number of candidates, who had lost the 2013 general elections but are considered to be close to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
According to insiders, there is resentment within the party over the leadership's decision to award tickets to most of the outgoing Senators who will be completing their term on March 11. Out of the total eight outgoing Senators, the party leadership awarded tickets to six including Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq, Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, Environment Minister Mushahidullah Khan, Najma Hameed and Sajid Mir from Punjab and Sardar Mohammad Yaqub Khan Nasir from Balochistan.
Zafar Ali Shah, another retiree, was not given ticket because of his criticism of party's policies including establishment of military courts; while Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, scheduled to retire on 11 March, was not awarded the ticket, as he has already been obliged with election of his daughter Zeb Jaffar as Member National Assembly on reserved seat. He is also one of the contenders for Governor Punjab.
According to party sources, a number of candidates who had lost the 2013 general elections were awarded tickets much to the anger within the rank and file of the party. The party's secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who lost the general elections from his home constituency in Noshehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been awarded ticket on a general seat from the federal capital.
The party also awarded tickets to outsiders such as (i) Dr Raheela Magsi, former Nazim of Tando Allahyar, who lost last general elections on a National Assembly seat, has been awarded the PML-N ticket for the reserved seat for women from Islamabad; and (ii) Nehal Hashmi, the general-secretary of the PML-N Sindh chapter has been awarded party ticket on general seat from Punjab. Notably, a long time loyalist Syed Ghous Ali Shah was again ignored.
Former MPA Chaudhry Tanveer, a convict in the 1997 Supreme Court attack case, who has recently become eligible to participate in the elections, has been given ticket from Punjab for general seat. Similarly, former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills and Pakistan Ordnance Factory Lieutenant General Abdul Qayyum Khan (Retd) has been given party ticket from Punjab on general seat. Furthermore, Dr Ghaus Niazi is the party candidate on general seat and Kiran Dar on the seat reserved for women from Punjab.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the party has fielded Lieutenant General Salahuddin Tirmizi (Retd), who, according to the insiders, is one of the close aides of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ignoring provincial party chief and former chief minister Pir Sabir Shah, who has been made covering candidate of General Tirmizi. From Balochistan, nine tickets were issued to the party candidates including Kulsoom Perveen, who is currently member of the Upper House on Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A) ticket. However, PML-N leadership awarded her party ticket on the seat reserved for women creating anger within the party ranks.
To appease the provincial chief of the party Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, the leadership gave tickets to his brother Nematullah Zehri and brother-in-law Shahbaz Khan Durrani for general and technocrat seats, respectively, while his recommendations for the party tickets to other candidates were widely honoured with one or two exceptions. Other candidates from Balochistan include Ameer Afzal Khan Mandokhel on general, Ayaz Khan Sawati as covering for technocrat, Dhanaish Kumar on minorities while Sydaal Khan Nasir and Mir Irfan Kurd are covering on general seats. However, a senior party leader defended the leadership decision, saying all the tickets were awarded after due consultation by the parliamentary board headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.