Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been facing stiff resistance from its Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa leaders over the tickets for the upcoming Senate elections.
The party’s chief, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, announced a list of 24 candidates for the Upper House of parliament on February 11. Tariq Azeem, the party’s spokesman, told reporters the tickets were awarded after consultations with a parliamentary board set up by the party to interview the applicants. But the reaction from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkwa provinces was strong.
Two of the party’s leaders who belong to Sindh – – Niha Hashmi and Mushahidullah Khan – have been chosen to run from Punjab, where they are likely to win easily. There are reports of a last minute decision to run a third Sindhi leader, Saleem Zia, from Punjab, replacing Dr Asif Karmani, who is currently the political secretary to the prime minister. Zafar Ali Shah will be a PML-N candidate from Sindh, and Dr Raheela Magsi – on a reserved seat for women – from Islamabad.
The PML-N leadership believes getting three Sindhi leaders elected from Punjab will strengthen the party in the Sindh province, but some Sindhi leaders disagree. They say the men are not ethnic Sindhis, and are all from Karachi.
Nihal Hashmi is the provincial secretary general of the PML-N in Sindh, while Saleem Zia is a central vice president of the party. Both the leaders lost the general elections from Karachi in 2013. When Gen Pervez Musharraf overthrew the Sharif government in 1999, Mushahidullah Khan was serving as the administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a former parliamentarian elected on a PPP ticket who joined the PML-N before the general elections, has been given a Senate ticket from Sindh, where he has no chance of winning. Raheela Magsi is a former Nazim of Tando Allah Yar and was once a close aide of Musharraf. She also joined PML-N just before the general elections.
A Sindhi-speaking provincial leader of the PML-N said that the allotment of tickets showed Sharif was not interested in strengthen the party in Sindh. “We thought that the party leadership will send at least one Sindhi leader to the Senate from Punjab province, but they preferred Urdu-speaking and Punjabi leaders over Sindhis,” he said, asking not to be named.
Mumtaz Bhutto, former chief minister who merged his own party – the Sindh National Front (SNF) with the PML-N – also expressed his anger. “No room for Sindhis in PMLN. Only Karachites,” he said in a tweet.
Political analysts say Sharif is being seen as having turned his back towards Sindh after coming to power in Islamabad, and ignored the province when he was making his cabinet. Sharif had joined hands with three major Sindhi nationalist parties – Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah’s Sindh United Party, Dr Qadir Magsi’s Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Party and Ayaz Latif Palijo’s Qaumi Awami Party - and several other groups to form a 10-party alliance to compete against the PPP in Sindh. “But after winning the elections, Sharif did not even invite these Sindhi leaders to attend the oath-taking ceremony,” said a Sindhi nationalist leader. He said Sharif had not changed his “Punjabi mindset”.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PML-N’s provincial chief Pir Sabir Shah expressed his concerns in a press conference. The central secretary general of the party, Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, belongs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but is running from Islamabad. The only candidate with a PML-N ticket in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is Lt Gen (retd) Salahuddin Tirmizi, a leader from Hazara division. The party announced that Pir Sabir Shah was his covering candidate, but he declined. Instead of negotiating with him, the PML-N fielded Muhamamd Javed Abbasi, another leader from Abbottabad, as a covering candidate for Tirmizi.
Engineer Amir Muqam, a popular PML-N leader who was not from the Hazara division, was not given a ticket, angering some party leaders in the province. They say all their province’s leaders in key offices – such as governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the deputy speaker of the national assembly, and federal minister for religious affairs – are from the Hazara division.
The writer is a journalist and researcher. Twitter: @zalmayzia
The party’s chief, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, announced a list of 24 candidates for the Upper House of parliament on February 11. Tariq Azeem, the party’s spokesman, told reporters the tickets were awarded after consultations with a parliamentary board set up by the party to interview the applicants. But the reaction from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkwa provinces was strong.
Two of the party’s leaders who belong to Sindh – – Niha Hashmi and Mushahidullah Khan – have been chosen to run from Punjab, where they are likely to win easily. There are reports of a last minute decision to run a third Sindhi leader, Saleem Zia, from Punjab, replacing Dr Asif Karmani, who is currently the political secretary to the prime minister. Zafar Ali Shah will be a PML-N candidate from Sindh, and Dr Raheela Magsi – on a reserved seat for women – from Islamabad.
The PML-N leadership believes getting three Sindhi leaders elected from Punjab will strengthen the party in the Sindh province, but some Sindhi leaders disagree. They say the men are not ethnic Sindhis, and are all from Karachi.
Nihal Hashmi is the provincial secretary general of the PML-N in Sindh, while Saleem Zia is a central vice president of the party. Both the leaders lost the general elections from Karachi in 2013. When Gen Pervez Musharraf overthrew the Sharif government in 1999, Mushahidullah Khan was serving as the administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a former parliamentarian elected on a PPP ticket who joined the PML-N before the general elections, has been given a Senate ticket from Sindh, where he has no chance of winning. Raheela Magsi is a former Nazim of Tando Allah Yar and was once a close aide of Musharraf. She also joined PML-N just before the general elections.
A Sindhi-speaking provincial leader of the PML-N said that the allotment of tickets showed Sharif was not interested in strengthen the party in Sindh. “We thought that the party leadership will send at least one Sindhi leader to the Senate from Punjab province, but they preferred Urdu-speaking and Punjabi leaders over Sindhis,” he said, asking not to be named.
Mumtaz Bhutto, former chief minister who merged his own party – the Sindh National Front (SNF) with the PML-N – also expressed his anger. “No room for Sindhis in PMLN. Only Karachites,” he said in a tweet.
Political analysts say Sharif is being seen as having turned his back towards Sindh after coming to power in Islamabad, and ignored the province when he was making his cabinet. Sharif had joined hands with three major Sindhi nationalist parties – Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah’s Sindh United Party, Dr Qadir Magsi’s Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Party and Ayaz Latif Palijo’s Qaumi Awami Party - and several other groups to form a 10-party alliance to compete against the PPP in Sindh. “But after winning the elections, Sharif did not even invite these Sindhi leaders to attend the oath-taking ceremony,” said a Sindhi nationalist leader. He said Sharif had not changed his “Punjabi mindset”.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PML-N’s provincial chief Pir Sabir Shah expressed his concerns in a press conference. The central secretary general of the party, Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, belongs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but is running from Islamabad. The only candidate with a PML-N ticket in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is Lt Gen (retd) Salahuddin Tirmizi, a leader from Hazara division. The party announced that Pir Sabir Shah was his covering candidate, but he declined. Instead of negotiating with him, the PML-N fielded Muhamamd Javed Abbasi, another leader from Abbottabad, as a covering candidate for Tirmizi.
Engineer Amir Muqam, a popular PML-N leader who was not from the Hazara division, was not given a ticket, angering some party leaders in the province. They say all their province’s leaders in key offices – such as governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the deputy speaker of the national assembly, and federal minister for religious affairs – are from the Hazara division.
The writer is a journalist and researcher. Twitter: @zalmayzia