KARACHI, July 30: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate Wajihuddin Ahmed continued to have secret admirers in the Sindh Assembly in his second bid out of the three presidential elections since 2007 when the results on Tuesday declared that he had got one more vote than what general calculations made out to be his fate against PML-N candidate Mamnoon Hussain.
Given the boycott of the presidential election by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and acknowledged support by the rest of the opposition parties, Mr Hussain’s numerical supremacy was a foregone conclusion, yet a bonus ballot in Mr Ahmed’s favour stunned the rival’s polling agent, Irfanullah Marwat, who till then had sat conveniently stretched in his chair, occasionally flashing a victory sign to the press gallery.
It was not the first time that Mr Ahmed surprised his rivals. When he first stood against General Pervez Musharraf in the 2007 presidential election he was expected to get not a single of the 104 votes, for the Pakistan Peoples Party — then the key opposition party in the provincial assembly — had abstained from the poll and several other political parties had resigned their seats in protest against a uniformed soldier’s participation in the country’s top democratic slot.
However, when the results were announced, they surprised everyone. Taking advantage of an opportunity of secret ballot, two members of the ruling coalition had voted for Mr Ahmed.
Critics equated the enemy votes with a revolt by the unknown lawmakers, which, otherwise, no one could have expected for fear of the wrath of the autocratic military ruler.
Irfanullah Khan Marwat, then a provincial minister, was the polling agent of Gen Musharraf, the nemesis of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and was as stunned by the results as he was on Tuesday.
“Today we have seen the replay of what happened in 2007. Wajeehuddin Ahmed got another secret admirer and dumbfounded Mr Marwat again who was sitting in a chair placed in the same place facing the presiding officer and the ballot box,” said Samar Ali Khan, a PTI lawmaker and polling agent for Mr Ahmed.
It was a one-on-one one-sided fight between Mr Hussain and Mr Ahmed after the PPP boycotted the presidential election and withdrew its candidate, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani.
The number game in the Sindh Assembly was in favour of Mr Hussain with the PPP boycott, which set a precedent to become the only ruling party in one of the six electoral colleges to boycott a presidential election.The provincial assembly’s total strength is 168. However, at the time of the election, 162 of its members were eligible to vote. With the absence of the PPP’s 90 members, the PML-N had a clear edge over the rival candidate with the support of the MQM’s 48 members as every political group (of 72 members) barring four of the PTI had declared its support for Mr Hussain.
There were fewer members present in the house when Sindh High Court’s Chief Justice Mushir Alam, who was the presiding officer for the elections in the Sindh Assembly, declared the polling open at 10am in the assembly hall, turned into the polling station.
Sindh Election Commissioner Tariq Qadri, the registrar of the Sindh High Court and the secretary of the assembly were acting as polling officers. They were sitting on the bench below the speaker’s rostrum, occupied by the chief justice.
MQM’s Abdul Haseeb was the first to cast his vote when most of the hall was empty – a sharp contrast to the usual bustle the assembly witnesses during its sessions.
With the passage of time, members of different opposition groups kept coming, but the PML-F members were yet to arrive. Some PML-F members, however, had been spotted outside the assembly building’s premises chanting slogans ‘Bhej Pagara’ in a procession, but their arrival remained mystery for quite some time. However, they arrived in the middle of the polling and occupied their seats randomly. Some of them were grim-faced.
Sources in the party said the PML-F members were not happy with the PML-N’s move to woo the MQM without consulting their leader, Pir Pagara. For similar reasons, the Pir had already cancelled an Iftar dinner he had scheduled to host for the PML-N’s mission for Karachi headed by finance minister Ishaq Dar.
“The PML-F members were not coming (to the assembly hall) to vote, but later PML-N leadership contacted Pir Pagara again who directed them to go in and vote,” said a party member.
Imtiaz Shaikh, a PML-F MPA, told the media later: “We don’t have any objection to the PML-N’s contacting the MQM, but it would have been much better if our party had been consulted first.”
Faisal Sabzwari, an MQM leader and opposition leader in the provincial assembly, said his party voted for Mamnoon Hussain after the latter’s party came to their headquarters and made a request for that.
“We voted for Mamnoon Hussain with the hope that the PML-N will lead the country to peace and prosperity,” he said.
Dr Sikandar Mandhro, provincial law minister, was the only PPP member found in the assembly for a while. He, however, clarified that he had come to his office, situated on the premises.
When PML-N’s Aijaz Shah Shirazi cast his vote at 12.35pm, he was the last of the lot. The presiding officer continued to call the rest of the members to vote and finally retired to the speaker’s chamber when no other member turned up.
Most of the hall had emptied when the chief justice emerged in the hall at five minutes to three o’clock, the scheduled time to close polling. He again announced that anyone who wanted to vote should come up and asked his staff to open the ballot box and start counting when he found no one to cast vote. He later announced that Mr Hussain secured 64 and Mr Ahmed bagged five votes.
As the counting started, both polling agents witnessed the staff upending the ballot box and counting ballots. Mr Marwat, until now relaxed and unperturbed, jumped out of his chair when he saw a staff putting a fifth ballot into Wajihuddin Ahmed’s corner and joined the huddle. He was too upset and so were a couple of party members who could not figure out what had happened.Mr Marwat, however, later said: “It is certainly a matter of concern to lose a vote, but why should we cry for the loss of one vote instead of celebrating the 64 votes we got.”
In contrast to him, PTI’s Samar Ali Khan and Hafizuddin were overjoyed.
“As we got loads of silent votes from the voters in Karachi in the general elections, we have got the silent vote of a person of conscience here as well. It is our moral victory,” said Mr Khan.