The Senate will meet here on Sunday to elect chairman and deputy chairman. The opposition parties have agreed to field joint candidates for both the slots but final decision in this regard would be taken after a crucial meeting followed by the oath-taking ceremony of newly elected Senators.
The ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League has already nominated incumbent Mohammadmian Soomro for the chairman.
The newly elected senator and former chief minister of Balochistan, Jan Muhammad Jamali has been nominated by the PML for the deputy chairmanship. The opposition parties held a series of meetings on Saturday to evolve a mutual consensus on the issue.
Earlier, the MMA Supreme Council called upon all the opposition parties to field candidates for election of chairman and his deputy with mutual consensus.
The council formed a five-member committee to work out the plan to field joint candidates with the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM).
Later on, leaders of different opposition political parties, including Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Raza Rabbani, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Liaquat Baloch and others sat together to develop consensus on the issue.
Talking to newsmen, opposition leaders in the Lower and Upper Houses, Fazlur Rehman and Raza Rabbani said they would succeed in nominating joint candidates for the two slots.
They said progress has been made in this regard and final decision of nominations would be announced after the oath-taking ceremony.
However, sources privy to the meeting told Business Recorder that they have agreed on three names for each slot. It is learnt that the meeting came out with the names of Mian Raza Rabbani (PPPP), Asfandyar Wali Khan (ANP) and Professor Khurshid Ahmed (MMA) for the chairman.
For the deputy chairmanship names of Safdar Abbasi (PPPP), Sajid Mir (PML-N) and Abdul Malik (MMA) have been agreed upon. The sources said a crucial meeting would be held in the Parliament House right after the oath-taking ceremony to finalise the names.
Since the ruling Muslim League did not have the majority in the Senate in the past, it kept on pending election for the vacant post of deputy chairman but now its decision to hold elections indicates that it has got majority in the Upper House.
As per schedule, firstly the members-elect would be sworn in by the Chairman Senate Mohammadmian Soomro. Thereafter, the process to elect chairman and his deputy will start.
Meanwhile Senators who formally retired on Saturday were Farhatullah Babar, Mohim Khan Baloch, Akbar Khwaja, Shahzad Waseem, Azizullah Satikzai, Abdullah Riar, Aslam Buledi, Saeed Siddiqui, Nighat Agha and Qari Abdullah.