The PTI is likely to emerge as the single largest party in the Senate. However lacking a majority, it would have to rely on allies and opposition parties for carrying out simple legislation.
With 11 Senators already elected unopposed from Punjab, polls for only 37 seats will be held today.
In a surprise move, the Punjab Assembly elected its share of 11 Senators unanimously. This allowed the PML(Q) to re-enter the Senate after six years. The PML(N)Â got 5 Senators and may get an additional one from KP. How the agreement was brokered would remain a subject of conjecture in days to come. That this happened without the approval of party Vice President Maryam Nawaz has led to conjectures about two opposing lines within the party.
The remaining three provincial assemblies are to elect Senate members today.
In Balochistan the JUI(F) rebuffed a move initiated by Senate Chairman Aslam Sanjrani to elect unopposed Senators as was done in Punjab. In KP PDM has allotted one ticket to each one of its four major components including the PPP, the PML(N), the JUI(F) and the ANP.
In Sindh the PTI is split at the level of leadership as well as provincial legislators. On Tuesday three dissident PTI MPAs were thrashed by their own party colleagues inside the Sindh Assembly. The divisions in the PTI’s coalition have led the PPP to hope to win more than the six seats that are its due.
The most breathtaking contest will take place today between Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh and former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani. Since the National Assembly is the electorate in the contest, Mr Gilani’s victory would be projected by the opposition as a verdict against the PTI government. Knowing that Dr Sheikh faces opposition from within the PTI for being an outsider, PM Imran Khan spent a whole day canvassing for his Finance Minister. If Mr Sheikh manages to win with a comfortable margin, the opposition might be forced to review the proposed no confidence motion in the National Assembly.
Questions were already being raised about the ECP’s slow proceedings on the foreign funding case against the PM and its inordinate delay in delivering the verdict on federal Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda’s dual nationality case, thus facilitating his entry into Senate. That the Governors of Punjab and Sindh continued to canvass for party candidates despite a bar imposed by the ECP would add to these questions.
