Elections and Politicians

                            Defectors and lifeline for Sharifs

Pakistan Muslim League(N) once again in hot waters. The party struck with another severe blow on Monday when a number of deserters turned their backs toward the government and set their loyalties somewhere else.
On Monday, eight members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) including Khusro Bakhtiar, Qasim Noon, Tahir Bashir Cheema, Basit Bukhari, Samiullah and Asghar Ali Shah left the party standing up for the cause of Seraiki province

‘Defectors were never part of PML-N’ lamented Nawaz Sharif while Talking to journalists inside the accountability court about Monday's defection of eight party lawmakers from South Punjab on the pretext of making the region into a separate province.

He further asserted, ‘Such people bring a bad name to politics, they keep coming and going’.

According to the reports, a number of dissenters have risen to 40. The rising deserters have shocked the party. Stunned by recent defections, Shahbaz rushed to loyalists in South Punjab to ascertain the real motives behind the defections.
In a retrospect, horse-trading is not new for Pakistani politics. Floor-crossing or defections are almost the same cases referred to as horse-trading, it has been a common practice in Pakistani politics.

The Constitution of 1973 in its original form did not contain any article to stop defection. 14th amendment to the constitution piloted by Nawaz Sharif in 1997, incorporated provisions against defection into the constitution with the insertion of Article 63-A.

The fourteenth amendment defined ‘defection’ in a very broad sense. A parliamentarian or member of a provincial assembly elected on the ticket of a political party was deemed to defect if (a) he violated party discipline, (b) voted contrary to directions of his parliamentary party, or (c) abstained from voting against party directives on any bill.

However, General Pervez Musharraf made several changes to the constitution including the substitution of Article 63A, which significantly diluted the grounds of defection by inserting two grounds; (a) when a member resigned from his political party or joined another parliamentary party; or (b) or voted or abstained from voting contrary to the directions of his parliamentary party in case of election of the leader of the house, vote of confidence or no-confidence, or a money bill.
Substantial changes were made under the Seventeenth Amendment in the Article 63A. However, the grounds of defection remain the same. The only significant change was defection reference is to be filed by the head of the political party rather than the head of the parliamentary party.

The expression ‘Horse-Trading’ emerged out of the Mongol’s war event. Changaiz khan was First Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. He conquered modern-day China, Korea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and substantial portions of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia. He used two formulae for his conquest one was speed and other technique. He would reach a particular place within a week where others took a month because of his war tactics; his military changed the horses whenever the horses got tired they were riding on and secondly Tatars were the only who warriors who could shoot arrow whiling riding. However, Alauddin Khazam Shah, Sultan of Turkey, was well aware of Changez's war tactics. Therefore, he bought all the horses in the way from North China to Samarkand. Consequently, when Khan was returning from China to invade Turkey, he was unable to find horses and thus his war technique failed miserably. Khazam Shah became the first leader to employ horse-trading for defeating the enemy. The expression got famous from the incident and known as ‘Horse Trading’.

The term became popular in politics when Thomas Jefferson tried to purchase the vote of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in 1790. The term got famous when New York times referred the incident using this term.

Changing loyalties is not a new thing in our country as well. Almost before every election newspapers and channels abound with these kinds of news. Changing loyalties of our representatives depict our national behaviours. Nepotism, bribery, illegal obligations and other forms of corruption are very common among our political leaders.

However, problems compounded for embattled Nawaz Sharif with this blow. Sharif brothers are caught between a rock and a hard place. The election is just months away, other parties are seizing the opportunity to engage the deserters. Therefore, the only lifeline remains for the party is to pinpoint the reasons behind defection and formulate a strategy to prevent the further erosions otherwise Sharif brothers will be in tight corner in the upcoming elections.