Daily Times

As the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is set to announce schedule of Senate polls in next couple of days, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is gearing up and flexing its muscles to garner more seats than its due share in the Upper House, by employing all tricks of the trade.

The shots, in this regard, are being called by none other than PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari, who is known for his shrewdness, manipulation and deep networks.

Reliable sources told Daily Times that Senator Sherry Rehman and MNA Naveed Qamar have been tasked to approach MPAs from the ruling party as well as its coalition partners both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan assemblies and win their votes for the upcoming Senate polls, no matter how much it costs. The PPP is ready to offer as much incentives as demanded by the MPAs in the two provincial assemblies. It plans to utilize all the second preference and third preference votes as well.

It merits mentioning here that the PPP had surprisingly won two seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 2018 Senate elections despite having only six members in the provincial assembly of 124 members. The PPP is now trying to repeat the same surprise by taking one or two extra seats from KP and Balochistan assemblies. Fifty-two senators are set to retire on March 11 after completing their six-year tenure. This time there will be no polling for the four seats of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) after its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Therefore, polling will be held to elect 48 senators – 12 each from KP and Balochistan, 11 each from Punjab and Sindh and two from Islamabad.

Given the strength of the PPP in all the legislatures, the PPP is expected to grab six seats in Senate polls. With this, the party will have a total of 19 seats in the Upper House. The PPP is hoping that its current manoeuvring will help it maintain its current strength of 21 in the House. This will put the PPP in a very strong position to nominate and get its own candidate elected on the coveted seat of Senate chairman.

After achieving its targets in the Senate polls, the sources said, the PPP plans to pursue the constitutional course of dislodging the incumbent government by moving a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the National Assembly.