The minute I read that Muzaffar Hussain Shah would be the presiding officer in the senate chairman elections, I knew the PTI would win. The winner (Sanjrani) actually got less votes than the loser (Gilani), but the presiding officer rejected seven votes of Gilani because the voters had affixed the stamp on his name and not in the blank space next to it. The PPP has opted to go to the courts to get the decision reversed, but I doubt if they'll succeed. After Imran's favorite (Hafiz Shaikh) failed to get elected to the Senate, I knew he would do everything to get his candidate elected as Senate Chairman (who, incidentally, is the better candidate in my opinion). But now it appears that the Establishment is back in the game, contrary to what Zardari and Bilawal said earlier. It now looks like the opposition will be disunited and Imran might get to complete his five year term (which of course will be disastrous for the country).
The real question, of course, is why senators are elected indirectly and not by the general public. Maybe the makers of the constitution wanted provincial assembly members to get rich by taking money from the candidates. Whatever the reason, the senate charade has made it clear that Pakistan doesn't have a bright future. There is so much corruption in the country that it can't be managed. Perhaps the constitution should be amended and the Chinese model adopted.
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