Daily Times

I the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Imran khan announced the Senate elections to be held in February instead of March and through show of hand as against secret balloting. Article 226 of the Constitution provides that all elections under the Constitution other than those of prime minister and chief ministers ‘shall’ be held by secret ballot. The government says that it will approach the Supreme Court to seek its guidance if it can hold the Senate elections through show of hands.

The Opposition parties have rejected this suggestion. In the Upper House, 52 senators will retire on March 11. Of the retiring Senators, twelve each belong to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan while eleven each belong to Punjab and Sindh. A majority of the retiring Senators belong to PML N. Among them, eleven belong to Punjab while two each from Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad. Seven Senators belonging to the ruling party of Sindh, PPP will retire, all coming of Sindh. Four Senators from MQM (Pakistan), an ally of the ruling party, PTI, are among those who are going to retire. One of the PDM parties, JUI F has its two Senators among the retiring ones. Seven Senators of the ruling party, PTI will retire. All of them belong to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Two Senators of National Party, two of Pakhtunkhwa Mili Awami Party and one of Jamaat-e-Islami will retire. Three Senators of BNP, one of BNP (Mengal), one of ANP and one independent Senator from Baluchistan, Yousaf Badini will retire. Four Senators from FATA will also retire. They are Aurangzeb Orakzai, Momin Afridi, Sajad Turi and Taj Afridi. Two Senators from Islamabad, Rahila Magsi and Yaqoob Nasar, will retire.

Among the retiring Senators, 34 belong to the opposition parties while 18 belong to the ruling parties. PTI won first time the representation in the Senate in 2015. Now, having majority in KPK and Punjab, PTI is likely to have majority in the Senate of Pakistan.

Anyhow, these are cold figures. The Senate elections will manifest who falls through and who reaches the winning post. But, suggesting the ‘show of hand’ polling, the PTI Government has unmasked the hypocrisy of the Opposition. PML N, in spite of having majority in the Assembly, failed to get its Chairman Senate elected. Now when the incumbent government has proposed open balloting, the same PML N insists of secret balloting in the Senate elections.

The hypocrisy of opposition parties is incomprehensible. Maryam Nawaz says that the government wants to have some underhand objectives through show of hands.

One thing is clear that Lahore jalsa has deflated blown up assertions of PDM, especially of PML N who bombastically calls Lahore its secure fortress. The inner circles of PML N say that Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz have bifurcated political views. That’s why; the supporters of Hamza Shahbaz who have tight control on PML N Lahore organization, were not seen anywhere in jalsa.

On the other hand, Bilawal wants to have any conclusive decision on resignation from assemblies only after the Senate elections. Being in majority in Sindh while its seven important Senators, Rehman Malik, Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla, Sherry Rehman and the lawyer of Asaf Zardari, Farooq H Naek are also among the retiring Senators, PPP wants to see them in the Senate once again. To materialize this wish, they must stay in the concurrent assemblies.

Bilawal Bhutto, in this regard, had a meeting with Shahbaz Sharif in the jail, seeking his advice on it with an offer to move ‘no-confidence resolution’ against the Speaker but the latter rejected this offer. Anyhow, Shahbaz Sharif prefers to postpone resignation from assemblies.

By now, the politics of the Opposition leaves no doubt that it is not serious in resigning from the assemblies. PDM and Opposition parties seem to have strategy to mount pressure on the government through the threat of resignations and keep it on till Senate elections and see if it buckles under the pressure on not. They may, if deem it beneficial, resign after the Senate elections. But till then, all of them want to have their due share of cake in the Senate.

On the other hand, things seem to come to a head. The government wants open balloting but the Opposition is rejecting the proposal. The government wants the Senate elections a bit earlier but the Opposition smells rat in it, alleging the government of seeking its fancy chances.

In this backdrop, the government has announced to seek the guidance from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, but the Attorney General says that constitutionally it is ruled out. If the government and the Opposition remain at loggerheads and they fail to reach any agreement, and if political decisions are settled in the Courts, then the Ides of March may echo in Pakistani politics.