ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is in shock as it has beenrevealed that at least seven Senators ditched Nawaz Sharif in the Senateelections.
PML N suspects at least seven senators, including a couple of its own,ditched it in the election of Senate chairman and deputy chairman.
Raja Zafarul Haq, the candidate of the ruling alliance for the chairman,secured 46 votes — the exact total of the members of the four parties whichwere part of the five-party ruling alliance. This clearly shows that eitherno one from outside the alliance voted for Mr Haq or some of the membersfrom within the alliance had voted for the opponents in violation of partydiscipline.
A number of PML-N leaders, including those who remained part of theconsultations within the party and in the negotiations with other parties,said they had taken part in the elections with confidence that the rulingalliance would secure 57 votes after being assured of support by theirallies and other parties.
“We had calculated 57 votes for us and 46 for the opponents. However, itturned the other way round,” said a senior PML-N leader, who described theday-long development as “depressing”.
The five-party ruling alliance presently has 48 members in the 104-memberupper house of parliament. With the absence of senator-elect Ishaq Dar, thePML-N had been left with 32 senators, followed by five members each of thePakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the National Party (NP), fourmembers of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) and one member of thePML-Functional.
The PML-N leader claimed their vote tally had reached 53 with the supportof the two members of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), two senators from the FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (Fata) and a Balochistan National Party-Mengal(BNP-M) member and a member of the Awami National Party (ANP), which hadassured the ruling party of their support.