Secrecy of Ballot in NA Speaker,
Deputy's Election in Doubt
Secret Cameras placed inside the
National Assembly Hall
By
Javed Rana
ISLAMABAD---Pakistan's
intelligence agencies have installed several hi-tech invisible
cameras inside the hall of National Assembly to specifically monitor,
with evidence, the way many of the about 60 purchased Parliamentarians
would vote on Tuesday.
These
agencies fear the MNAs could possibly breach their secret commitment
to cast vote for official nominees for the office of Speaker and
Deputy Speaker of the Lower House.
Official
sources told South Asia Tribune that sophisticated cameras
had been placed “horizontally and vertically” on the
polling booths to be set up inside the National Assembly on Tuesday,
Nov 19, 2002
In
addition to the 10-member Forward Bloc of defectors from the country’s
mainstream political party PPP-P (Pakistan People Party Parliamentarians),
there are as many as 50 MNAs who are on the “ watch list”
despite the fact their palms were greased “reasonably”
to secure votes for the official nominees.
Sources on the condition of anonymity
said several “graduate” Parliamentarians from Pakistan’s
religious alliance and PPP-P have consented to vote for the official
nominees for the office of Speakers and Deputy Speaker in secret
ballot . However, intelligence sleuths suspect that some of these
“graduates” might play a double game and cast vote
toeing their party line at the eleventh hour in a highly volatile
game of political make and break going on in Pakistan under official
patronage.
Even the military rulers are not
completely certain about the 10-member PPP Forward Bloc as to
how they will behave while voting for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
The
military establishment is finding it very hard to secure defections
of some “vulnerable” Parliamentarians belonging to
religious alliance - MMA. However, intelligence sleuths have maneuvered
to seek assurance from several “graduates” of MMA
to secretly violate alliance policy and cast vote in favor of
Choudhry Amir Hussain, a possible potential candidate for speakership
on behalf of the King’s Party, PML-Q. These MMA Parliamentarians
have consented to vote for official nominees in case PML-Q and
MMA fail to reach an understanding on the formation of a coalition
government at the Center and in the provinces.
There are very interesting figures
of ‘monetary arrangements’ made with “part time
defectors” belonging to MMA. Being new in the old game of
horse-trading, some Parliamentarians from MMA settled below one
million rupees just to vote for the two offices of Speaker and
Deputy Speaker. However, this rate is unlikely to be applicable
to the election of the Prime Minister which is expected be held
through show of hands.
Second category of defectors belong
to PPP-P whose total numerical strength, including its Forward
Bloc is in the neighborhood of 25. On an average Rs 10 million
have been paid to most of them individually but definitely not
every body settled on this relatively small amount.
This is in addition to “perks’ promised to them including
some ministerial slots to some of them.
However, the government is not certain
at all about them. The military rulers suspect these PPP-P defectors
might be driven by their ‘likes and dislikes” or any
other consideration which could possibly play havoc with the official
political game to install PML-Q’s Zafarullah Jamali as the
top executive of Pakistan, at every cost.
The third category belongs to PML-Q
.There are several possible defiant PML-Q MNAs whose number is
close to double digits. These Parliamentarians are quite upset
because of dirty internal politics as they believe they could
not have their due share in this murky politics of power.
Some were interested in the National
Assembly’s speaker-ship and some were looking for the office
of the Prime Minister. After being sidelined within the party,
these Parliamentarians are on the official list of “suspects’
who may cast their vote against the official nominees which might
result in the success of an opposition party candidate- a situation
which may turn into a nightmare for General Pervez Musharraf,
who is already finding it hard to have his controversial amendments
validated by a two-third majority.
The uncertainty about these soft
and hard defectors pushed the country’s intelligence sleuths
to the centre-stage of the House to minutely monitor them with
secret cameras installed around them.
It is unlikely that Ilahi Bux Soomro,
the defeated PML leader and ex-speaker, who will be presiding
over the election, will order a thorough check of the house to
detect any secret cameras as he will come under severe pressure
himself if he took any action against the agencies.
The only way to stop this secret
monitoring is for the members to raise the issue on the House
floor before the elections and to order some neutral experts to
carry out a thorough scanning before members proceed to cast their
votes.
