LAHORE: The PML-N leaders have come up with a new strategy to ensure that all its members in the Punjab Assembly vote for its candidate Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan for Oct 3 by-poll on a vacant Senate seat (from Punjab).

To save itself from embarrassment it faced in the Senate and presidential elections, the PML-N leadership has divided its 159 MPAs into 10 small groups.

`Ten groups of PML-N MPAs are formed with two coordinators in each group to ensure that all of them vote for Mr Hassaan,` a PML-N MPA told Dawn on Friday.

He said the party leadership did not want to lose a single vote (of its member)in this Senate by-poll and held two coordinators in eachgroup responsible for any party violation.

`The coordinators have started holding meetings with its members in this regard,` he said, adding that since Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf`s nominee Dr Shahzad Waseem was not a strong candidate, the PML-N would try its best that he (Waseem) did not bag all its (PTI) 186 votes. `There has been grouping in the PTI and we will try to cash in on the situation,` the PML-N lawmaker said and added that the PML-N and PPP leaderships were also in contact and the former was hopeful that the six members of the latter would vote for Mr Hassaan.

He said the PML-N nominee had good relations with the PML-Q leaders as well and would contact it for its (10) votes in the Punjab Assembly.

A source in the PTI said the party appeared to be complacent and had not yet formed any strategy for the Senate by-poll.

`Governor Chaudhry Sarwar who was quite active in the Senate andpresidential polls is conspicuous by his absence in this by-poll campaign,` he said.

PTI`s senior leader Ijaz Chaudhry dispelled this impression, saying the party was in a comfortable position to win the Senate seat on Oct 3.

`There has been no resentment in the party over the nomination of Dr Waseem. He is a party candidate and we have the required numbers to win,` he said.

In the September presidential polls, 16 PML-N MPAs were alleged to have `deliberately` wasted their ballots to keep the vote count of PML-N nominee Maulana Fazlur Rehman low to benefit PTI`s Arif Alvi. The PML-N suspected that the lawmakers in question were those who had voted for PML-Q`s Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the election of the Punjab Assembly speaker. Mr Elahi had bagged 201 votes for the slot of speaker -15 more than the PTI and PML-Q strength in the house.

Interestingly, Usman Buzdarcould get 186 of the PTI and PML-Q votes to become the chief minister of Punjab, showing that it was Mr Elahi who caused a real problem for the PML-N.

It is believed that the Sharifs` party had not put up a serious effort to trace the `suspects`.

Chaudhry Sarwar was the only senator who was elected on the PTI ticket in March this year and he surprised many by winning a general seat from Punjab by securing the maximum number of 44 votes among the victorious candidates belonging to the PML-N.

His win set the tongues wagging about a lack of f airness of the elections and the PML-N alleged that the PT I candidate had used money to secure his victory.

The PML-N later formed two committees to hold an inquiry and reportedly identified 28 of its MPAs, mostly women, who voted for the PTI and PPP candidates.

The PML-N leadership at that time too chose not to initiate any action against the violators.