Archives

ISLAMABAD, Feb 20 (AFP) - Pakistan will next week elect its first senate since the October 1999 army coup, completing the theoretical transfer of power to civilians.

The 100-seat senate is chosen by an electoral college made up of deputies from the four provincial legislatures and the national assembly elected in October 10 polls, the first since the coup by President Pervez Musharraf.

Each province will choose 22 senators on Monday. On Thursday the national assembly will elect four representatives and the eight tribal districts bordering Afghanistan will choose one senator each.

There are 186 candidates contesting the 100 seats.

With seats decided according to the strength of each party in the legislative assemblies, the makeup of the senate should be a foregone conclusion, provided candidates vote along party lines.

But accusations of bribery and coercion are flying thick and fast ahead of the vote,

The strength of the Islamist six-party alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in the North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan legislatures should guarantee it around one third of seats, according to analysts. It also holds 17.5 percent of seats in the federal parliament.

The MMA swept October polls in the deeply religious NWFP and won a majority of seats in Baluchistan, both provinces bordering Afghanistan.

Equally assured of a strong showing is the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), which won the most seats in the national assembly, though short of the 171 majority, and rules a coalition of Musharraf-friendly parties.

PML-Q also rules the largest province of Punjab and shares power in the southern Sindh legislature.

Opposition MPs said PML-Q would land the dominant share of senate spots, and accused the ruling party of pressuring opposition MPs to switch loyalties.

"The government is doing its best to keep the opposition out," Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), said.

"There is everything, coercion, pressure and money," he said, without offering proof.

Babar said dormant graft cases against PPP legislators had been revived to force them to change their loyalties and vote for candidates outside the PPP.

The same claims were levelled before and after the October polls as PML-Q sought to build a majority in the national house.

More than 10 PPP legislators voted for the PML-Q's Zafarullah Jamali as prime minister. Castigated as "turncoats," most of them were rewarded with plum cabinet posts.

Siddiqul Farooq, spokesman for deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claimed six million rupees (103,500 dollars) was being offered as bribes, but he too offered no evidence.

"I don't think the senate elections will be fair," Farooq said.

Senate polls were originally scheduled for November. The government has repeatedly postponed them.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed announced last week that the 21-member cabinet would be expanded after the polls.

Farooq speculated that the promise of a cabinet post could again tempt opposition MPs into supporting government candidates.

Ahmed and the election commission dismissed claims of bribery and coercion.

The minister predicted that PML-Q would win a majority of seats and clinch the chairmanship.

An alternative outcome, with opposition parties dominating, could create problems for the government of Prime Minister Jamali as the senate can send back bills adopted by the lower house.

The senate chairmanship is also vital as it ranks number three after the president and prime minister.

The constitution stipulates that in the absence of a president, the senate chairman would act in his place.

Musharraf is holding on to both his unelected presidency and the army chief post, and a military-dominated National Security Council has powers of overseeing the government written into the constitution.

Therefore, critics say, Pakistan's generals still wield more power than elected civilian legislators. 

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager