From Senate polls to General elections

Surprises that await the parties 

Unexpected developments witnessed before and during the Senate elections  make one wonder if similar  surprises will characterise the general elections scheduled for July. The PML-N has suffered a number of setbacks. The PTI  has been shocked by its legislators who sold their votes.  Zardari  seems to have finally come in from the cold.

Two months before the Senate elections  the PML-N legislators in Balochistan rebelled against their  own Chief Minister, elected a PML-Q  MPA as CM and contested the Senate elections as independents  winning 6 seats. The PML-N was eliminated from the province. To add to the PML-N’s  travails the SC  decided that the 15  candidates nominated by their disqualified party chief  would contest as independents.  Four  Senators accused of being  dual citizens, three of  them from the PML-N,  were  provisionally allowed to take part in the elections for the Senate Chairman, pending resolution of the issue of their membership by a seven member  bench of the apex court.

To the surprise of Imran Khan, the supposed paragon of honesty,  it was discovered  that at least 17 PTI MPAs from KP Assembly had  sold their votes helping  the PPP to win two Senate seats. PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar succeeded in performing  the same feat in Punjab Assembly.

Will the PPP manage to get elected a sizable number of MNAs from Punjab to be able to play a meaningful  role in government formation at the federal level? If not, it  will remain confined to Sindh as before.

Will Imran Khan who has been on the back foot for the last few months build up a momentum in the coming months in Punjab that can double or triple  his strength in the NA? If not he will be out in the wilderness on the national level for another five years.

There are straws in the wind which  indicate that the PML-N will be fighting the general elections  without Nawaz Sharif and Maryam. Will the new PML-N leadership  steer the party to victory once again despite  the hurdles in its way and joining hands with allies, new or old,  form a government at the center? If not, the country could be moving towards a hung parliament.