Daily Times

During the Chairman Senate elections, the opposition parties have once again come a cropper. Though in majority, they, second time at a trot, have failed to get their chairman elected. Ninety-eight members of the Upper House voted for the elections of the chairman and the deputy chairman.

Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani got 48 votes while his contestant, the unanimous candidate of the PDM, Yousaf Raza Gillani got 42 votes while his seven votes were rejected. One of them had stamp marks for both the candidates. For Deputy Chairman Senate, Mirza Muhammad Afridi got 54 votes and his rival, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri got 44 votes, and none of the votes was rejected( Bilawal Bhutto has announced to go in the court. If the opposition had agreed on the idea of open balloting, they wouldn’t have to bite the dust).

These elections have left nothing to doubt that an undeclared breach existed between PML N and PPP. It became manifest in the Senate elections. PML N members of the Senate and the National Assembly cried foul that they were receiving calls from unidentified numbers, directing them not to vote for Mr. Gillani. But Mr. Gillani, on the other hand, had admitted that there was no indication of interference of the establishment in the Senate elections and they were taking place transparently.

Basically, the defeat of Mr. Gillani brought about rift between PPP and PML N. In fact, PML N started crying wolf that their members were being coerced, though so far they have presented no proof of any intimidation.

According to the inner sources of PML N, the seven rejected votes were cast by their members who didn’t want to see Mr. Gillani elected. Settling the score, PPP members voted for Mirza Muhammad Afridi to stop Maulana Ghafoor Haideri from carrying the day.

In fact, PPP and PML N though provisionally joined hands, fall pole apart from each other. They want to topple Imran Khan Government; otherwise, their political ideals are utterly polarized.

At present, opposition parties resort to criticism for the sake of criticism. They have neither any vision nor planning to guide the government. Instead of helping the country in these economic ordeals, opposition parties are just to have their piece of cake so that their politics of corruption and rent seeking should continue.

I have repeatedly said in these lines that it is a temporary alliance of strange bedfellows. The parties which are seen united at the platform of PDM will be grabbing each other’s neck very soon. Its one glimpse is seen in the Senate elections. PML N members wasted their votes deliberately so that PPP member shouldn’t win. And the PPP, hitting back, voted the government candidate instead of Maulana Ghafoor Haideri as their reprisal. In the coming days, especially on the eve of the proposed long march, this split will be wider than ever.

Through this column, let me say that opposition parties will fall through in their attempt of long march as they have failed during the Senate elections. They will be chasing their own tail. On the other hand, PML N leader, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is hurling nonsense allegation on the defenders of Pakistan, claiming that the generals of Pak Army are threatening Maryam Nawaz. If it is so and Maryam is being threatened, her father and brothers should come back to Pakistan, telling the world that she isn’t insecure. In the eastern societies, daughters are not left alone in the wake of danger, they are protected. But in reality, staying abroad, they are trying to malign the institutions, dragging them in dirty politics.

Let me say that PLM N, in the coming days, will have to taste retribution because well-meaning people of Pakistan don’t like any mudslinging on the defenders of national security. If PML N wants to have their chance in national politics, they will have to detach themselves from their so-called narrative; otherwise, they will be wiped out from Punjab as it has happened in other provinces.