Government PML-N style
The otherwise smug PML-N leadership developed cold feet after indications of disloyalty from some of its MPAs days before the upcoming Senate elections. The party fears an upset in its calculations about the results. It now wants a constitutional amendment to be passed post-haste to disqualify the legislators who vote against their parties’ nominees. On account of insufficient time to thrash out the somewhat complicated issue, it remains uncertain if the PML-N would be able to get the required amendment passed.
The horse trading that takes place during Senate elections has assumed scandalous proportions. A handful of people with enough black money at their disposal buy their way to the Upper House at every election. There is hardly any political party which does not know this but as the well-known moneybags formerly made payments directly to the political parties to get an official ticket, everyone kept mum. As some of these candidates this time around are instead approaching the voters in Balochistan and KP, belonging to the PML-N and PTI, this has raised the latter’s hackles.
The issue should have been put on the agenda of the electoral reforms committee which should have finished its task by now. Since the results of the last elections were in PML-N’s favour, the party’s leadership was not much bothered about electoral reforms. When it decided under pressure from the opposition to form reforms committee, the Prime Minister nominated Ishaq Dar, the busiest Minister in the Cabinet, as its Chairman. This indicated that the government was not convinced of the urgency of the matter. When Zahid Hamid, chairman of a technical sub-committee working under the electoral reforms committee, resigned in November, the PM did not appoint a substitute which again indicated the government’s lackadaisical attitude towards reforms. No meeting of the committee has reportedly taken place since Hamid’s resignation in November.
Attempts should be made now to evolve a workable amendment to stop horse trading. Whatever the results of these attempts, the electoral reforms committee should be activated to finish its task at the earliest.