Parties? leaders know defectors, but aren?t divulging

[ahlam1399]

ISLAMABAD: Switching loyalties by 14 opposition members in the voting on the no-confidence resolution against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani did not throw up anything surprise in Pakistan Senate’s history, which has been frequently marred by use of influence, money, manipulation and engineering.This time too, the deep-rooted pattern was religiously followed though there were different players in action. There has not been a single Senate election since 1985,= when the Upper House was revived after a hiatus of eight years, that has not engendered controversies because of horse-trading and involvement of 'big money' by the affluent having money to buy seats.The poll process of the present Senate initiated in March 2018 climaxed the practice of floor crossing in consideration of pecuniary gains, forcing even several parliamentarians to hang their heads in shame helplessly. After the 2018 election, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) received the shock of its life when one-third of its lawmakers in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly sold their votes, impelling Imran Khan to initiate disciplinary action against the defectors. The names of 20 PTI lawmakers, including half a dozen women, “found involved” in allegedly receiving millions of rupees to vote for candidates of other parties during an investigation of the party’s special committee were announced by Imran Khan himself. However, a number of these lawmakers denied the charge. But the PTI supremo said the party tracked down the offenders by observing the voting pattern. “This is not for the first time that legislators minted money in the Senate poll. This has been happening for the past 30 or 40 years,” he said and announced to send the cases of these defectors to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).In the same election, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e- Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) had clinched at least one seat each in excess of their respective numerical strength in the KP assembly. A business magnet associated with the JUI-F has consistently won from KP not because of his party’s presence in the provincial assembly but due to his personal sway. He is believed to have voted against the no-trust motion against Sanjrani.Also in March 2018 Senate poll, the entire parliamentary party of the PML-N in Balochistan assembly defected not on its own but for reasons best known to all and sundry and dissociated itself from its parent body. Shortly before that, the PML-N chief minister was made to resign to pave the way for an independent to replace him. The PML-N was going to win at least five seats from Balochistan if its parliamentary party remained intact.Then, the pinnacle came when the election for the Senate chairman was held. Nearly a dozen PML-N senators crossed floor and voted for Sanjrani. At the time, the PML-N was as stunned as it was flabbergasted now when the combined opposition’s no-confidence motion against Sanjrani fell flat. It never named and shamed the deserters before, and is unexpected to do so even now. Both the PML-N and PPP have constituted separate committees to identify the defectors and subsequently proceed against them. But a question that is being recurrently asked by political circles is that whether these were defections or the senators voted as directed by their party bosses. In private discussions, informed leaders of the two parties name “Mir Sadiqs and Mir Jaffars” but fall short of publicly identifying them. They precisely know the senators, who voted against the no-confidence motion after receiving ominous messages to prepare for reprisals if they don’t fall in line.Different lists of “traitors” started doing the rounds on WhatsApp groups after Thursday’s vote, which created its own public impact.The campaign has been so powerful that PML-N Senator Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qayyum had to release a video message, dismissing inclusion of his name among them. In the 2012 Senate election, there was a big upset for the PPP’s hierarchy particularly for its strategists in Punjab.Despite holding the required numbers in the Punjab Assembly, it had lost one seat to independent contestant Mohsin Leghari (now provincial minister). PPP candidate Aslam Gill was thus routed. Though Leghari was associated with the PML-Q, he had vied for the poll as an independent after developing differences with his party. After the defeat, Gill cried foul and said that the PPP lawmakers betrayed him and he will protest over it.The victory of independents in all the Senate elections has left no doubt about the use of money. This practice has mostly been observed in Balochistan and tribal areas. At times, this curse has also shown its tentacles in other areas. However, neither any parliamentary party nor any other entity has ever been inclined to identify such provincial lawmakers. The political parties have hardly made any serious effort to do so. They always feared that if they punished the deserters, they would be robbed of the support of such influential political personalities.As far as the anti-defection is concerned, it exists only in statute books, and has never been applied to curb the curse. Parliamentary parties have not paid due heed to tighten the law to eliminate the floor-crossing.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/bGe5zN0A-VY

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