PML-N has lost interest in Senate opposition leader’s office

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seems to have lost interest in the office of the Senate leader of opposition, despite the fact that it is in a better position now to claim it after the MQM, which had supported JUI-F’s Abdul Ghafoor Haideri for the slot, has rejoined treasury benches. The office which remained a bone of contention between the PML-N and its supporters in the Upper House and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) for weeks, had finally gone to the Fazl-led party after the Senate Chairman Farooq H Naik ruled in JUI-F’s favour. The controversy which continued to dominate the House proceedings in several sittings came to an end with the chairman ruling that JUI-F parliamentarian Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri enjoyed the support of the majority of opposition members in the Upper House.
In July, the chairman ruled that Haideri enjoyed the support of 25 members of the House, including six MQM members, while Senator Ishaq Dar had the support of 15 opposition members. The chairman had stuck to his June 6 decision. Annoyed with the chairman, the PML-N had at the time decided to challenge the chairman’s ruling in the Supreme Court. The PML-N believed that the ruling was not given on merit and also leveled allegations of tampering with the record of the Senate in favour of Haideri. Keeping in mind the MQM’s political somersaults, the PML-N later decided to hold its decision of challenging the chairman’s ruling in the apex court. They were of the view that if the MQM rejoined the treasury benches, Haideri would lose confidence of a majority of the opposition senators in the House and Ishaq Dar would be in a better position to plead his case in the court.
Per PML-N expectations, the MQM again left the opposition benches and joined treasury as a result of its patch up with the PPP, but the PML-N now seems not interested in the office. According to a source in the Senate Secretariat, the PML-N has decided not to raise the issue again with just around three months left in the next senate election. Asked about the logic behind the PML-N’s decision, the source said that at a time when the Nawaz-led party was striving hard to block the coming Senate election, the office of the opposition leader has no attraction for it.
Rather, the PML-N is focusing not to let the PPP gain majority in the Upper House as a result of coming Senate election. It is striving to dislodge the incumbent PPP-led government as early as March 2012. The Nawaz-led party is hopeful that prior to the next Senate election, it would manage to oust the PPP-led government. The other option of the PML-N could be the dissolution of the provincial assembly of Punjab to block the Senate election, the source further said. Though the PML-N is denying any move to disrupt Senate elections fearing the PPP majority in the Upper House with current provincial assemblies intact, but the recent PML-N statements suggest that it wanted to wind up the incumbent political dispensation before March 2012. The change in the PML-N decision regarding challenging the Senate chairman’s ruling in the SC speaks volumes of the changing priorities of the party ahead of the next Senate election.