As Senate elections are drawing nearer, some senators whose terms are going to be completed in March, have started lobbying to stage a comeback in the forthcoming Senate election with the help of parties that enjoy majority in provincial assemblies - the electoral colleges for Senate election.
About half of the senators who are set to be retired after completing their six years tenure, have no constituencies and the only option with them is to stage a comeback in next elections through joining some other party which has enough majority in a provincial assembly.
The smaller political parties, particularly Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), may not be able to bring in new senators as party has no majority in any provincial assembly to elect new senators and all its lawmakers will be retiring in March from the Senate.
Given the situation, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed who enjoyed as parliamentary leader of the party for about three years has quit the slot and, according to insiders, he is searching for other avenues to stage a comeback in the Senate.
They said that Mushahid who had earlier remained a close confidant of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is once again making hectic efforts to join the ruling PML-N if he was given ticket in the upcoming elections.
Mushahid quit as parliamentary leader of PML-Q on Wednesday and Senator Saeedul Hassan Mandokhel was appointed as new parliamentary leader by the party for the remaining two months.
"The reason for quitting the slot is simple: he [Mushahid] is looking for another six years in Senate which can only be possible if he joins some other party as PML-Q is no more in a position to re-elect him," said a senior PML-Q leader who declined to be named.
There were reports that PTI and PPP would forestall the upcoming Senate elections through dissolution of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provincial assemblies but sources said that given the prevailing political circumstances, it is no more an option with the two parties.
They said that after passage of all important delimitation bill from the Senate, the PTI wanted to disrupt the Senate election and the PPPP was also thinking on the same lines. "Now both PTI and PPP supported the bill, and there is no chance that they would go for any adventurism," they added.
A PTI spokesman said, "We still have this option, but it would be premature to say anything about Senate election. We will see what can be done when the time will come. We are considering different options about this as we do not want the PML-N to be the majority party in the Senate," he added.
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