Situationer Tariq Saeed
THOUGH the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) suffered a serious blow in shape of Abdul Hafeez Sheikh’s surprising defeat at the hands of former Prime Minister and PPP leader Yousaf Raza Gilani from Islamabad territory in the recently concluded Senate elections, at the same time it managed to bag ten out of 12 seats from KP thus helping it become the single largest party in the upper house.
Besides, the defeat of Farhat Ullah Babar, another PPP stalwart and a very closed aid of PPP Supremo Asif Zardari, by the technocrats nominated by the PTI, must have also brought some respite to the party which is finding it hard to digest the unexpected defeat of Hafeez Sheikh though many factors contributed to his failure to make it to the upper house.
Babar could secure only 34 votes against the rival contestants Dost Mohammad and Dr. Hamayun of PTI who bagged 59 and 49 votes respectively.
While scion of the renowned poet and intellectual late Ahmad Faraz, the incumbent federal Information Minister Shibli Faraz pocketed highest number of votes in KP assembly from general seats, PTI also emerged victorious on all the seats reserved for technocrats, women and minority.
Bagging ten out of twelve Seats by the PTI backed candidates is no doubt a big achievement.
Also among the winners on the women seats is the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Dr. Sania Nishter who is not only a world reputed medic and a social worker but also belongs to a known family of Nishter’s that has produced personalities like Sardar Abdur Rub Nishter and Dr. Tariq Nishter.
The combined opposition comprising 11 parties could hardly bag two seats one each by Maulana Atta ur Rehman the brother of JUI Secretary General Maulana Fazl and Hidayat Ullah of ANP.
In fact the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been standing firmly with the PTI despite all the odds.
It was the KP province that trusted the PTI in 2013 general elections and brought it to power to form a coalition government for the first time and elected it again in 2018 general elections when the PTI formed government in the province with a comfortable majority.
And this time the parliamentarians helped it become the single largest party in the Senate.
The KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan expressing satisfaction and jubilation on the PTI performance in Senate elections in KP said the KP parliamentarians have proved to be the true and die hard member s of the Imran Khan team.
He said the PTI is the strong supporter of transparency in all fields of life including the polls.
Though the KP Chief Minister claimed that the those resorting to horse trading were inflicted upon crushing defeat in the Senate elections, with the Federal Minister Information Shibli Faraz saying that surfacing of several video clips substantiated that PDM parties resorted to worst kind of horse trading and that a commission would be formed to look into the matter, the things are not that simple.
While the Prime Minister Imran Khan himself admitted that few members of his Party might have fallen prey to the horse trading and mysterious misappropriations of over a dozen PTI votes itself should ring alarm bells in the party as this has also provided an opportunity to the opposition parties saying that even Imran’s own people do not trust him any longer.
