KARACHI - Announcement by the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) that it will take part in the upcoming Senate elections has opened doors for floor-crossing in Sindh.
The PSP has some lawmakers in the Sindh Assembly who recently quit the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P). They will cast their vote in the Senate elections.
It is pertinent to mention here that there are eight MQM lawmakers – Bilqees Mukhta, Irtiza Khalil Farooqui, Khalid Bin Vilayat, Abdul Razzaque, Muhammad Dilawar Qureshi, Syed Nadeem Razi, Sheeraz Waheed, and Sheikh Abdullah – who had recently quit their party and joined other parties. All these lawmakers joined Pak Sarzameen Party. MPA Irum Azeem Farooque joined the PTI, but she left the PTI too. PTI lawmaker Hafeezuddin had recently joined the PSP.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would also benefit from this situation as one of the MQM-P members on reserved seat, Arif Masih Bhatti, had joined the PPP.
The major loser in this situation seems to be the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, which officially had 50 lawmakers in the house, but nine of them joined various parties. Two party members, Adil Siddiqui and Adnan Ahmed, are out of country and are likely not to return to the country for the upcoming elections.
Sheikh Abdullah, who recently joined the Pak Sarzameen Party, told The Nation that they were still members of the Sindh Assembly and would exercise their right to vote in the upcoming Senate elections. “This is incorrect that we cannot vote in the Senate election because our vote will not be counted due to floor crossing,” he said. He refused to tell as to which party he would be voting for. He said that decision in this regard would be taken by the PSP leadership. He said that there were nine lawmakers who had joined the PSP, eight from the MQM-P and one from the PTI. He said if the MQM-Pakistan accuses them of floor-crossing, it should know that it is still enjoying the mandate of MQM founder Altaf Hussain.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Parliamentary Leader in Sindh Assembly Syed Sardar Ahmed said while speaking on the issue that as per his interpretation of the Political Parties Order 2002, no lawmaker who had resigned from his post or joined another party could exercise his powers as member of the house. “They stand disqualified and thus had no right to vote in the Senate elections,” he said.
He said that he had asked in writing to the speaker of the Sindh Assembly to de-notify the lawmakers who had joined other parties. He said MQM-Pakistan chief Dr Farooq Sattar had also asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to disqualify those who changed their loyalties. “However, no progress had been made on both fronts and the lawmakers who switched their loyalties have yet to be disqualified,” he said. He said that one of their lawmakers would also move court in a day or two to stop these lawmakers from casting vote in the Senate elections.
Senate elections will be held on March 3. Twelve senators will be elected from Sindh, seven on general seats, two each on seats reserved for technocrats and women and one on minority seat. Every lawmaker would be given four ballot papers to cast their vote for four different categories -- general, women, technocrats and minorities.
In the last Senate elections, the PPP and MQM had joined hands and bagged seven and four Senate seats, respectively, from the Sindh province. However, the situation has changed this time, as the MQM-P has only 38 lawmakers in the provincial assembly.
A source in the PSP said his party was likely to snatch a general seat from the MQM-P. He said that in addition to nine PSP lawmakers in the assembly, many from the MQM would support PSP candidates in the upcoming election.
The PPP is set to win five general Senate seats as it has support of 95 party lawmakers and newcomer Arif Bhatti, who recently defected from the MQM-P. The PPP had the support of a National Party lawmaker in the last election and it might have his support in this election too. The sources in the PPP have confirmed that they might get support of two PML-N lawmakers. The party also has good chances of winning all four reserved seats – two seats for women, one for technocrat and one for minorities – if the opposition remains divided. However, the situation could change if the opposition unites. So, overall, the PPP can win at least eight seats.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Functional is the third largest party in the assembly with nine seats. It had fielded a candidate, Imamuddin Shuaqeen, for the March 2015 Senate elections. He got 13 votes despite support of 10 PML-F lawmakers and seven PML-N lawmakers. Imamuddin Shauqeen joined the PPP after a meeting with Asif Ali Zardari on Friday.
PML-N lawmaker Sorath Thebo denied any lobbying for the Senate elections during a telephonic conversation with The Nation and said the decision would be taken by the provincial party leadership. However, sources said the PML-N was making efforts through Governor’s House to unite the opposition parties and deprive the PPP of four seats of Senate in Sindh. They said the recent visit of Nawaz Sharif to the Sindh province was also aimed at initiating lobbying in the province for Senate elections. It is need of the hour for the opposition parties to unite and dent the PPP.