Sindh votes for Mamnoon

With the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) keeping aloof from the House, 69 opposition members cast their votes in the Sindh Assembly to elect the country’s new president on Tuesday.
As expected the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Mamnoon Hussain won the presidential election from Sindh, bagging 64 votes.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) presidential candidate Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed however, upset the PML-N leadership by winning five votes when there were only four PTI members in the assembly.
“It is a big happening that we lost one vote (to the PTI),” said PML-N’s Irfanullah Marwat during a post-session briefing.
Earlier, PTI’s Syed Hafeezud Din of PTI had said his party would spread all over Sindh with the power of the vote.
“This extra vote shows the power of the vote,” said PTI member Samar Ali Khan, flanked by fellow party members.
Presiding Officer (PO) Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice Musheer Alam announced the results as soon as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and SHC staff finished the vote count at 03.10 pm.
“None of the votes cast are invalid,” he declared, thanking all concerned for facilitating the electoral process.
The casting of 69 votes from Sindh contributed 26.69 votes to the president’s electoral college. The PML-N bagged 24.16 votes and the PTI 1.93 votes.
Polling started at 10.30 am, half an hour after the scheduled time 10 am.
As Mamnoon of PML-N and Wajihuddin of PTI were the only runners in the presidential race, the two parties nominated Provincial Assembly members (MPA) Irfanullah Khan Marwat and Samar Ali Khan as their respective political agents in the Sindh Assembly.
The members were called to vote alphabetically and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Abdul Haseeb was the first lawmaker to go to the ballot box.
The voting was completed well in time due to the absence of 91 treasury members from the PPP.
Ijaz Hussain Shah Shirazi from Thatta was the last voter to go for balloting at around 12.25pm.
This made the PO ask if anybody else was left to vote. Observing silence in response, the PO left the House.
The polling agents, Sindh Assembly acting secretary and some lawmakers, however, waited in the House till 3pm.
The Sindh Assembly has 168 members. But the PPP’s boycott, the vacancy of five seats and the absence of three members reduced this number to 69.
The absentees were MQM’s Ayesha Khatoon, Erum Azeem Farooqui and PML-N’s Ghulam Rasoon Jatoi. Their fellow party members said they were out of the country.
The five vacant seats were PS-12, PS-64, PS-81, PS-95 and PS-103.
PS-12 was rendered vacant by Allah Dino Khan Bhayo who was disqualified for having a fake degree. From PS-81, PML- Functional (PML-F)’s Jam Madad Ali Khan has been declared successful after a vote recount but has yet to take oath. The murder of MQM MPA Sajid Qureshi left PS-103 vacant.
PS-64 and PS-95 have to undergo re-polling.
A party-wise breakdown shows that the electorate included 46 MQM members, 9 PML-N members, 10 PML-F and four PTI members.
With no PPP legislator available for comments at the assembly premises, members of the PTI and PML-N actively faced media personnel.
“The PPP, though it used its constitutional right, should not have boycotted the election,” said PTI member Dr Seema Zia.
She said her party was participating in polls “under protest”.
“We have a principled stance,” she added.
Asked whom her protest was directed at, the ECP or Supreme Court of Pakistan, the PTI leader responded diplomatically, saying the ECP should have taken all the political parties on board instead of merely setting the election date.
She also criticised the SC for “interfering” and not entertaining the opposition’s request. Dr Seema was also critical of the PML-N, who, she thought, had compromised on the “politics of principles” by seeking the MQM’s support for personal interests.
“They used to call the MQM terrorists and then went to Nine-Zero for personal gain,” she claimed.
PML-N stalwart Salim Zia also visited the Assembly Secretariat.
When asked if his party had drifted from its previous stance of “politics of principles”, he replied in uncertain terms saying “There should be the politics of principles.”
Overall, the Sindh Assembly opted for Mamnoon as the next president of Pakistan.