Political parties maneuver to install chairman Senate

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Senate elections witnessed major upsets in many provincial assemblies.
Polls were held on March 3 in the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies for 52 Senate seats out of a total of 104. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged with a majority.
The senators-elect will take oath on March 12 when the chairman and deputy chairman Senate will be elected the same day.
Political parties are now actively working to form alliances in an effort to gather the required number of at least 53 votes in order to install the Chairman Senate of their choice.
No political party has enough numbers in the Senate as yet to elect its candidate on its own.
The PML-N has 15 newly elected senators, bringing its total strength in the Upper House to 34 after Miza Muhammad Arfidi, the senator-elect from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), announced he was joining the PML-N on Monday. The party is still not in a position to bring the chairman Senate from its candidates by itself and needs the government’s allies to support the PML-N candidate.
The PPP has 20 votes in the Senate so far with 12 newly elected senators, and needs 33 more votes to have its candidate elected as chairman Senate. For that, it would need to forge alliances with many independent candidates and other political parties.
The third largest political party in the Senate is PTI, with a total of 12 senators. However, the largest number of senators after the PML-N and PPP are the independent candidates with five old senators and 10 newly elected ones. This total of 15 senators was reduced to 14 after one of them joined the PML-N. Six of these independent senators are from Balochistan and are the focus of every political party at this point in the numbers game. These senators are expected to play an important role in the election of chairman Senate.
The MQM has only one newly elected senator, bringing its total number of Senate votes to five. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazlur Raham (JUI-F) has two newly elected senators, bringing its total number of votes to four. Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Balochistan National Party have five senators each in the Upper House, while Muslim League-Functional and Awami National Party (ANP) have one each.
If the ruling PML-N is supported by its allies in the Senate chairman election, then its already existing 34 votes would be joined by four from JUIF, five from PkMAP, five from BNP, and one from the Muslim League Functional, bringing the total to 49. The remaining four votes required to achieve the target of 53 could then be filled by independent candidates or another party.
However, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said his party will pitch the chairman Senate from within PPP and was approaching other opposition parties to support the PPP candidate. If the opposition parties join the PPP, then its already existing 20 votes would have 12 from PTI, five from MQM, two from Jamat-e-Islami (JI), and one from the ANP. If the six senators-elect from Balochistan decide to support the PPP candidate, the party’s total number of votes reaches 46 senators, requiring only seven more votes. But this would require the PPP to forge a huge grand opposition alliance not been seen in the past five years.
Chief Minister of Balochistan Abdul Quddus Bizenjo has said that independent senators-elect from Balochistan would join the party that supports the notion of a chairman Senate hailing from Balochistan. Dr. Qayyum Sumro and Faisal Karim Kundi of PPP visited Balochistan earlier this week and met Bizenjo and other senior officials in their quest to bag Senate votes.
Earlier, PTI leader Jahangir Tareen also approached the newly elected senator from Balochistan, Anwarul Haq Kakar, for support.
While the PML-N is holding consultative meetings with its allies before announcing its candidates for chairman and deputy chairman Senate, the PPP is actively approaching independent candidates and political parties to sweep the numbers game. PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is set to meet JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman on Wednesday to reach an understanding on the issue. The PPP has also reportedly offered the PTI to appoint a deputy chairman Senate of its choice in exchange for the party’s support for the PPP’s candidate for the chairmanship.
The PML-N, which hopes to have more senators from FATA join the bandwagon, is likely to emerge as a winner if the opposition parties fail to forge an alliance.