And the problems he causes
With the PPP and PML-N almost evenly balanced in the new Senate, they are trying to woo smaller parties for securing the offices of the Senate Chairman and Deputy Chairman. Both have offered the slot of Deputy Chairman to allies agreeing to support their respective candidates for the top post in the Senate. With the MQM, ANP and JUI-F being the next three parties getting the highest number of votes, any two of them joining hands with either of the two major parties could play a decisive role in the election. The three have been bitterly opposed to one another in the past and it would require unusual bargaining skills to yoke them together. It remains to be seen which one of the two major parties succeeds in bringing the smaller parties on board.
Another issue that can affect the outcome of the polls is the verdict on the FATA candidates’ appeal. These candidates had boycotted the polls as a protest against an eleventh hour presidential ordinance which was described by them as unjust and politically motivated. They subsequently challenged the ordinance in Islamabad High Court.
While the entire lot of political parties is focused on the forthcoming elections, Imran Khan says his party would vote neither for the PPP nor the PML-N candidate as these parties, according to him, were involved in politics for the sake of making money. The PTI chief has in the past expressed similar views about the MQM, ANP and JUI-F besides accusing the two nationalist parties in Balochistan government of having been elected through rigging. The “holier than thou” posture has isolated the PTI in the past. This looks all the more hypocritical after reports in media about the PTI’s Chief Minister having brokered a secret deal with the PML-N in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa that ensured all the six seats for the PTI in the Senate besides providing the PML-N an extra seat. The boycott by the PTI after its first ever entry in the Senate does not bode well for the party and the democratic system.