LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) awarded the senate ticket from Punjab to the party’s old guard and loyalist Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan on Monday who will contest the election against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) nominee Dr Shahzad Wasim on October 4, 2018. The general seat of senate from Punjab fell vacant after Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar resigned as senator to take oath as Punjab governor soon after casting his vote in the presidential elections held earlier this month. Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar became PTI’s first senator from Punjab by clinching the seat in the senate elections held in March. Supreme Court Bar Association former president and renowned lawyer Hamid Khan, Ejaz Chaudhry, Nauman Qaiser, Umar Sarfaraz Cheema and Waleed Iqbal were vying to get the ticket of PTI for the senate seat but Prime Minister Imran Khan awarded the ticket to Dr Shahzad Wasim who is considered to be one of the close confidantes of Imran Khan. “I am grateful to my leader for reposing confidence in me for senate ticket. I will do my best to come up to the expectations and will continue to play my role for the cause of Naya Pakistan,” Dr Wasim said after getting the senate ticket. He also held separate meetings with Muhammad Sarwar, Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and Punjab senior minister Aleem Khan as they all will play important role to secure victory for Wasim in the election, keeping in view that MPAs from Punjab will cast their votes to elect the senator from the vacant general seat for the upper house of the parliament. Wasim also remained senator on Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PMLQ) ticket from 2002-2008 and also served as minister of state for interior in the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during the military regime of former president Pervez Musharraf. He has strong connections in the diplomatic community in Islamabad and currently holds office of PTI Foreign Affairs central secretary and he is often seen with Khan during his meetings with foreign ambassadors and delegations. From PML-N, Hafiz Nauman and former MNA Mehar Ishtiaq were also the contenders to get the party ticket that has now been awarded to Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan who remained one of the core members of former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif’s team in Punjab during his two consecutive stints as CM. Ahmed Hassaan has served as Advisor to CM Punjab while he was also Orange Line Metro Train Steering Committee chairman and overviewed most of the development works in Lahore. He also remained mayor of Lahore in 1999 before the military coup of Pervez Musharraf and was considered very close to the Sharif family. He lost two consecutive elections of National Assembly from Lahore in 2013 and 2018 to PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood but still managed to get the party ticket for the senate election to be held next month. Polling would be held through secret balloting in the Punjab Assembly where PTI is the largest party with 175 MPAs followed by 159 of PML-N. PML-Q has 10 MPAs, Pakistan People’s Party has seven while there are two independents and one MPA from Rah-e-Haq party. It would be a daunting task for PML-N to get votes according to its party position keeping in view that the party could not get votes according to its position during the elections of speaker and in the presidential election where the polling was also held through secret balloting. Published in Daily Times, September 25th 2018.