Muzaffarabad, Feb 22: The ruling Muslim Conference on Tuesday clinched two out of four seats of the Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) Council but virtually lost five of its members to two rival parties which also bagged one seat each.
 Although the result of polling, held in the Legislative Assembly building, was not unexpected, votes by five members of Prime Minister Sardar Attique Khan’s cabinet in favour of opposition Peoples Party and Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates surprised many people.
 According to election commission officials, Chaudhry Muhammad Khan and Sardar Saghir Chughtai of MC bagged 11 and 10 votes, respectively, and Chaudhry Muhammad Mehboob and Sardar Naeem Khan of PP-PaK and PML-N, respectively, secured 11 votes each. All of them were declared successful against the four vacant seats.
 PP-PaK’s second candidate, Sardar Manzoor Ahmed Khan, claimed five votes but Raja Babar Ali Zulqarnain, son of PaK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan, could not secure any vote.
 Young Zulqarnain was proposed by the Speaker Chaudhry Anwaar ul Haq, who has always expressed his allegiance to the PaK president. However, as Ali Zulqarnain failed to persuade the legislators to vote for him, Haq was also compelled to cast his ballot in PP-PaK’s favour.
 It may be mentioned here that the MC parliamentary party comprised 24 lawmakers, all flag-bearers, with 2-member MQM its ally.
 Among the opposition groups, the strength of PP-PaK had recently risen to 12, (excluding the speaker), whereas the PML-N had 9 legislators in its folds.
 However, in Tuesday’s election, the MC candidates bagged just 21 votes, including the two from the MQM, while the two PP-AJK candidates and the PML-N candidate bagged 16 and 11 votes, respectively.
 According to credible sources in opposition, minister for rehabilitation and civil defence Chaudhry Mohammad Ismail and minister for communications and works Col (retired) Raja Muhammad Nasim had voted for the PML-N and minister for agriculture Abdul Majid Khan, minister for information Mahmood Riaz and minister for religious affairs Attiqur Rehman Faizpuri had cast their votes in favour of the PP-PaK.
 These flag-holders were however in no mood to quit the government on their own. “I will quit (the government) after the election schedule is announced,” one of them, who had voted for PP-PaK, told Greater Kashmir.
 Pleading anonymity, he alleged that the MC candidates, who are said to be fabulously wealthy, had “doled out money” to their voters to ensure their success.
 It may be recalled that some senior MC leaders, including party’s senior vice-president, have already alleged that even the party tickets to the duo were allotted after they paid millions of rupees to the party leadership.
 Minister for Auqaf and MC’s additional secretary general Hafiz Hamid Raza, said: “We will ignore their act as a misunderstanding,”

Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST