Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are facing resentment within their party ranks over selection of Senate tickets to wealthy and blue eyed candidates. Background discussions with various PML-N loyalists revealed serious reservations on the selection process which, they claimed, entailed handpicking candidates instead of awarding tickets on merit.
"You have to be a billionaire or a blue-eyed of the leadership to get a [Senate] ticket, there is no merit at all", lamented a ticket aspirant of PML-N who was denied the party ticket. The PML-N received around 130 applications of which 110 were received from Punjab where the party is expected to win all the 12 seats.
There was general anger against awarding of a ticket to Mushahid Hussain Sayed, a former PML-Q senator, on the very day he announced he was rejoining the PML-N; Mushahid Hussain left the party and joined forces with General Musharraf when the party leadership was facing a hard time, PML-N loyalists told Business Recorder. Another PML-N applicant who was also denied the party ticket stated that no formal parliamentary board was put in place to evaluate the qualifications of the applicants, and short-listing them, saying that he, nor anyone else he knew who had applied, was called for an interview prior to the announcement of the decision to award tickets.
Talking to Business Recorder Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a senior PML-N leader said that merit was not the criterion used to award a party ticket as they are finalized on the grounds of a candidate's personal ties with the leadership. To a question, the former PML-N senator said that he did not apply for the ticket as he knew his application would not be entertained.
"Applicants were charged from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000, but they were not called for interviews and the candidates were picked by 'one-man' [Nawaz Sharif], and not by the party", he added. However, PML-N Secretary Information Mushahidullah Khan rejected these allegations, saying that all the party candidates were finalized on "merit" after following due process.
PTI is facing similar reservations from within its ranks, though, unlike in the PML-N, a parliamentary board of the party did formally announce the selected candidates. The PTI's parliamentary board received over 50 applications for contesting Senate elections from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone.
Seven candidates were declared eligible and were issued tickets after the completion of the scrutiny process. Those who were refused the ticket accused the parliamentary board of preferring billionaires and new comers instead of the old party loyalists.
Of the selected candidates, they pointed out that billionaire Haji Ayub Afridi of Khyber Agency, who is the owner of an international brand electronics company and father of the owner of Peshawar Zalmi of Pakistan Super League Javed Afridi, was awarded the ticket. They said that the extremely wealthy Azam Swati whose six-year term will end on March 11, was awarded the ticket again.
Reports of 'horse-trading' especially in Balochistan and Punjab have also surfaced.
Despite accusations of horse trading by PML-N, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is engaged in negotiations with Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Qadoos Bizenjo with a hope to clinch six Senate seats from Balochistan without a single PPP member in the provincial assembly.
A senior PPP leader who declined to be named said that it is PPP's right to seek support from other political parties in any and every provincial assembly in order to retain its majority in the Upper House of Parliament. "If PML-N is sure its MPAs in Balochistan as well as in Punjab will not vote for any other party candidate, there is no need to be worried about [and] if any PML-N member has reservations, particularly with regard to distribution of tickets, he will vote according to his conscience," he added.