Pakistan Today

PPP and PTI snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

For PML-N everything was hunky dory with the party and its three coalition partners having 46 solid votes.  All that they  needed was seven extra votes to win the two top Senate slots. The PPP needed 33 extra votes and the PTI 41 to achieve the goal while both were not on speaking terms. What was impossible happened when Abdul Qaddus Bizenjo  made Imran Khan to agree to support the panel named by him. Another miracle  was to persuade Zardari to  withdraw  his party’s nominee  in favour of Sadiq Sanjrani, and agree to the Deputy Chairman’s office instead. Another  surprise came when MQM announced support for Sanjrani  despite  rivalries with the PPP and  PTI.  FATA Senators who generally move into action only when offered a substantial material incentive  or when under  pressure  from the establishment supported the PTI-PPP panel.  A single surprise can be attributed to chance. But if there are a number of surprises steadily pushing development in a particular direction, there is something more to it than  meets the eye. The PML-N had smelled a rat when suddenly its government was overthrown by its own  MPAs in Balochistan. The successive events look like moves of a  well though out  game.

The defeat of the PML-N in the Senate elections  comes after a series of  successes in by-polls in Punjab. Unless there are more serious interventions in the electoral process in days to come, this alone  is not likely to have any significant impact on the electoral fortunes of the party.

The PML-N should be the last one to make an issue out of what happened to it because it has itself been a part of similar games against the PPP in the past.  What comes as a surprise  is that the PPP leadership has agreed to play the role  that it had long  accused the PML-N of,  and for right reasons.   It remains to be seen if this is a one-time act of revenge or a long term party policy under PPP-P President  Asif Zardari.

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