LAHORE – Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz has finally completed its probe inthe Senate elections debacle.
PML N has shortlisted 28 provincial lawmakers who did not vote for theparty and instead preferred to vote for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf orPakistan Peoples Party in the recently concluded Senate elections.
The ruling party had formed two committees to identify the ‘suspects’ inits ranks who violated the party policy and voted for PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwarand PPP’s Shahzad Ali Khan in Senate polls on a general seat in Punjab.Both the candidates had bagged 14 and 18 votes respectively more than theirparty strength in the provincial assembly.
One of the committees had the representation of law minister RanaSanaullah, minorities affairs minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu and adviser tothe chief minister Rana Arshad, while the other comprised women legislators– Azma Bokhari, Zakia Shahnawaz, Mary Gill and Mahwish Sultana, Dawn Newsreported.
“We have identified 28 suspects who voted for the PPP and PTI candidatesand submitted a comprehensive report to the leadership. Most of thesuspects are women MPAs. Now it is up to the leadership what action ittakes against them,” a PML-N insider disclosed on Thursday.
The source claimed that some of the ‘suspects’ had voted for the oppositioncandidates for money and others to have a ‘future understanding’,especially with the PTI.
Another credible source said the party leadership had decided not to takeany action against these MPAs as PML-N government was already faced with aplenty of challenges.
“The suspected MPAs will not be considered for the party tickets on generalor reserved seats in the forthcoming general election,” he said.
The investigators also pinpointed an interesting aspect in the reportregarding the voting pattern in the Senate polls in Punjab on seats ofdifferent categories.
On women seats, 13 votes were rejected, on minority 11 and on technocratseats nine, while only three votes were rejected on general seats, showingthat there was an intentional strategy to ‘waste’ the votes in the threecategories in which the PML-N candidates could have an easy victory, saidthe source.
On the other hand, PTI’s sole winner from Punjab Chaudhry Sawar had claimedthat the PML-N lawmakers voted for him according to their “conscience anddemocratic mindset”.